


mid summer

by strawberrykihyun



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Boyfriends, Coming of Age, Cuddling & Snuggling, Cute, Feelings, Fluff, Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, Innocence, Insecurity, Jealousy, Kissing, Light Angst, Multi, Polyamory, Self-Discovery, Slow Burn, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, jaemin and hyuck are theatre nerds, lots of messy feelings, mark and jeno are soccer players
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-20
Updated: 2018-09-18
Packaged: 2019-05-25 18:33:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 28,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14983103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strawberrykihyun/pseuds/strawberrykihyun
Summary: Jaemin doesn't want to share Jeno.Donghyuck doesn't have to share Mark.That's it. That's the description.Cross-posted on Wattpad.





	1. Chapter 1

Soulmates are a common concept amongst people in South Korea.

On the night of your eighteenth birthday, at exactly 12:00am, a tattoo of the person you'd spend the rest of your life with inks itself into a designated spot on your body.

For high school seniors, it was a very hectic year. It was their last year of the hell hole called high school. Universities will be scouting and everyone is sending in application letters or getting some back. Stress levels were high as these students wrote their final exams, as they stepped into the lonely adult life.

Handling your last year of high school was already stressful as it is, but the universe decided to add the fact that now, you were also antsy about finding out who your soulmate would be.

Life as a seventeen year old couldn't get any harder than this. Lee Jeno was stressed. Not that it surprised him, not that it surprised anyone who saw him in his frazzled state to be honest.

He just felt that having to hand in his university letter by tomorrow, and taking his science exam a day before his eighteenth birthday was a bit too much for one week. Couldn't they show mercy on Jeno? On sweet Lee Jeno who didn't understand that things could've been way worse, and that things were going to be fine?

No.

They couldn't.

Because Jeno is convinced that the universe hates him, and that it's torturing him with having everything currently in his life eat him up, swallowing him whole until he couldn't do anything anymore.

Jeno was also kind of over-dramatic. He spent too much time with a theatre nerd for his own good, so Jeno blames it on him.

His eyes hurt from how many times he's reread his university entrance letter, praying to God that he didn't miss any typos, or that his mom, who Jeno made read the letter _six_ times, didn't miss any typos and that her suggestions were actually helpful and not bullshit.

Jeno takes several deep breaths in and out, which don't actually calm him, honestly he just starts to panic more.

Jeno _really_ wants a set life. He really wants to give himself a good living and have a good income so that he could do the things he's dreamt about. He also may or may not want to make a certain theatre nerd bounce up and down with contentement once he finds out that Jeno will be going to the same university as him.

Exhaling one final time because fuck it, he wasn't going to ruin his mind too much with this, Jeno sends his letter, sighing out in satisfaction and also worry because _is he sure he didn't miss anything?_

Jeno is broken out of his second thoughts once two small hands squeeze his shoulders, an ear piercing squeal cutting through what used to be his silent room. Jeno finds it in himself to smile before turning around to face his theatre nerd in his spiny chair, letting out a breathy laugh. His arms snake around the other's waist, situating them exactly where he's convinced they belong.

"You did it Nono!" Jaemin squeals, hugging Jeno closer to him. The elder's head only lands on Jaemin's stomach because of their height difference caused by Jeno sitting down on his chair.

Jeno looks up from under his eyelashes at Jaemin, who's still smiling vibrantly at what he assumes is the ' _sent!_ ' notification coming from his laptop.

Jaemin's smile is so bright, so blinding and so beautiful that Jeno thinks that his left lung might collapse from how violently Jaemin takes his breath away with his beauty.

"You did it! I'm so proud of you," Jaemin continues to chant and praise, and Jeno knows that the younger won't stop until Jeno tells him to, which makes him consider if he should bring it up or not. He kind of really likes having Jaemin gush about him, not that he'd let Jaemin know that.

Breathing out a final calming and satisfied breath, Jeno stands up from his chair with his eyes closed, listening to how Jaemin stops speaking along with how his breath hitches. This has Jeno smiling with his eyes still closed.

"Soon Jaemin-ah," Jeno whispers quietly, opening his eyes to see how Jaemin's cheeks have darkened because of their close proximity. Jeno finds it cute, so he delivers a kiss to Jaemin's left cheek. The younger boy doesn't say anything, instead he happily tightens his arms around Jeno's shoulders, laying his head on Jeno's chest while they sway happily in the latter's room.

Jaemin is pretty content in this moment. There isn't much more he could ask for.

Jeno just sent in the letter to the university which Jaemin is set on going to, which now raises the chances of his boyfriend attending the same university as him. The school would be stupid to not take Jeno.

Jaemin was pretty happy.

And so was Jeno.

He's one hundred percent sure that Jaemin's name is going to get tattooed onto his left forearm on the night of his eighteeynth birthday.

Jeno is sure Jaemin is his soulmate. It would be ridiculous if Jaemin wasn't his soulmate. The universe couldn't be that stupid.

Everyone, _everyone_ knows that Jeno and Jaemin's attraction for each other run deep through their veins and through their bones. It would be the equivalent of the universe tipping off of its axis if Jeno or Jaemin get a different name tattooed onto their bodies. Just like Jeno, Jaemin believes that it wouldn't make sense having someone else's name other than Jeno's on his body.

Sometimes, it was like one part of Jaemin's body burned with the anticipation of getting a name inked onto there. It happened in three different places; one above his heart, one near the inside of his right ankle and the other behind his left ear. Those were one of the three places Jaemin expected Jeno's tattoo to go.

If Jeno and Jaemin weren't soulmates, then apples were triangular prisms and bananas were circular.

 

+

 

"Fuck it up Mark! Score a goal you little bitch!"

Soulmates were often supportive of what their significant others do, and what their passions are. They often know how to make their soulmate feel good and happy about what they do, and they always, always love them no matter what decisions they make in life.

It wasn't very common for soulmates to fall through, to break apart, because the universe knows what it's doing, most of the time.

Back to the concept of soulmates being supportive though, some were... A tad _too_ supportive.

There was a fine line between showing affectionate support and then being borderline embarrassing.

Donghyuck crossed that line a long time ago.

Mark grew used to it.

Donghyuck had a loud mouth, naturally. He also had a big heart, naturally. All of it was for Mark, who held it easily in his hands.

Donghyuck was supportive, Donghyuck was _very_ supportive. _Too_ supportive. Borderline _embarrassingly_ supportive.

But Mark would honestly not want to be hyped up any other way.

Instead of embarrassingly hiding and blushing when Donghyuck used to screech motivational phrases and tell him he loves him from the bleachers, Mark now embraces how utterly whipped his boyfriend is for him, because the elder feels the same way.

Mark plays soccer and Donghyuck plays his cards right.

Mark shoots goals and hat-tricks while Donghyuck shoots him finger hearts and loving gazes.

Mark takes his sweaty jersey off after they win the game while Donghyuck takes his stupid hat and foam finger off before sprinting down to smother Mark with kisses.

It wasn't a new scene for people who come watch the school's soccer games regularly, it was a very common scene to see shirtless all star varsity soccer player Mark Lee being kissed hungrily by his theatre nerd of a boyfriend Lee Donghyuck.

"You're gonna get in trouble one day," Mark smiles into their kiss, messily speaking while Donghyuck continues to stubbornly try to kiss him. Donghyuck giggles too, Mark's heart might just burst.

"Don't care. Love you. Good job." Donghyuck says sweetly and shorty, keeping his arms wrapped around Mark's really sweaty neck.

Mark hums.

"Love you too."

If Mark loved soccer, he loved, with the _fall on your face because you find them so amazing in every way_ kind of love, Lee Donghyuck.

The younger was everything from cute to a handful to giggly to annoying as hell. Mark thinks they are so compatible, and it's not just because he took online quizzes to ' _See If Your Soulmate Really Is Your Soulmate!_ ' or do those stupid soulmate quizzes that are on the school's newspaper left hand side column. Mark thinks they're compatible because they are. Donghyuck fits into Mark's life like a missing puzzle piece, like he belonged there since the beginning of time, which Mark believes he did. Donghyuck likes to relish in how every new thing he did with Mark was like he was supposed to do those things with Mark. It was like the universe crafted specific scenarios and environments for events with both Mark and Donghyuck to take place, which is why everything goes so perfectly smoothly for them.

Mark likes to believe that on the night of his eighteenth birthday, Donghyuck's name will ink itself on his right thigh, somewhere which is always burning and tingling, probably in excitement of getting inked. Donghyuck likes to believe that Mark's tattoo will appear dancing along his collarbones. His reasoning was stupid though, since he said that it will appear there because Mark likes to leave hickeys on his collarbones.

"You're sweaty," Donghyuck points out, unraveling himself from Mark. "Take a shower." Mark rolls his eyes, Donghyuck's mood switches more often than not, one minute he goes from confessing his undying love for Mark and the next he's not even batting an eyelash in his general direction.

They were horribly rude to each other sometimes, and also grossly in love the other times.

If Mark and Donghyuck weren't soulmates, then oranges were the size of atoms and oxygen was a hoax.


	2. Chapter 2

Jeno doesn't need a lot.

He's really easy going and the few things which make him happy are his friends, family, and when Jaemin is by his side.

Honestly, he doesn't ask for a lot, but when he asks for things (which he rarely does), it's all minimal things.

Like instead of having Jaemin host a huge and extravagant party for his eighteenth birthday, he kindly requested that the other simply make his birthday special by spending the entire day with him, watching movies while cuddling.

What more could Jeno want other than Jaemin? Nothing much, to be completely honest.

Jaemin had a knack for always putting on a show, for always boasting to anyone about how capable he is. Jeno says it's a theatre kid thing. It's not showing off, per se, it's just Jaemin being Jaemin. It's subtle, but it's there and Jeno doesn't mind.

One of the ways he does this is by going above and beyond for each of Jeno's birthdays. Since he was ten years old, Jeno has been experiencing the ' _crème de la crème_ ' of birthdays, as his boyfriend likes to put it.

Jaemin is capable of a lot, and Jeno learns this when there was a chocolate fountain and popular band playing in his backyard for his thirteenth birthday.

Jaemin was special and Jaemin was Jeno's boyfriend, so he couldn't say no when Jeno asked for a quiet eighteenth birthday so sweetly.

"Okay Nono," Jaemin had said softly, nodding his head to show that he was also content with the idea of spending the day alone with Jeno. Sure Jaemin was kind of upset (honestly not really) that he couldn't show off his amazing boyfriend skills yet again for the eighth year, but it wasn't always that the two of them got to spend alone time together for the whole day. They were both busy boys, Jeno with soccer, Jaemin with theatre, and then the both them with their studies and home lives.

Jeno thanks Jaemin one more time before he pulls the latter down next to him, falling asleep like that in a comfortable position. Thoughts about Jeno's soccer practice and Jaemin's early rehearsal the next morning completely demolished from their thoughts.

Similar events take place when Jaemin comes over for Jeno's actual birthday. After lazing around with the most unhealthiest snacks, Jeno pulls Jaemin down to bed with him and they fall asleep. That evening, Jeno dreams of something weird. He sees three people standing in front of him in the form of shadows, one of which he can immediately identify as Na Jaemin's shadow. All of the shadows are looking at him, he can't see any body features or facial features except for glowing eyes. One pair brown, one pair green, and one pair blue. Jeno doesn't know what his dream meant, but all he knows is that he wakes up confused and not understanding.

When he wakes up, it's eleven o'clock at night, and Jaemin is shivering against him. It's then he realizes that his window is wide open and Jaemin is only wearing his thin grey t-shirt. Jeno also smartly forgot to drap a blanket over themselves.

After placing a tender kiss on Jaemin's forehead, he uses his feet to somehow manoeuvre the pale yellow fleece blanket at the foot of his bed to their bodies, single handedly wrapping them both up cozy.

The instant Jaemin feels the warmth of the blanket on his body, his hands clutch onto the fabric subconsciously, pulling it until it was in a bunch on his chest, around his body and only his body. Jeno is left feeling cold, but he's still smiling.

"Nana is stupid," Jeno finds himself whispering, retrieving another blanket from his bedroom floor and wrapping it over himself. When he turns back to Jaemin, he's shocked out of his skin when he sees that Jaemin's eyes are open, staring at him.

"Did you just call me stupid?" He asks quietly, tone indicating that he was bored. Jeno keeps opening and closing his mouth, not sure what to say to answer Jaemin's question. Was Jaemin being serious? Was he mad at Jeno for saying he was stupid? Jeno was just joking— Jaemin knows that he'd never insult his sweet and pure Nana, right?

Jeno splutters, _actually splutters_ , before finally saying something.

"I-"

"Shut up," Jaemin sighs, sitting up on Jeno's bed with the yellow blanket around his shoulders, not bothering to fix his messy bed hair. Jeno thinks that this is for sure the last thing he wants to see before the night ends; before he gets his soulmate tattoo.

"Ten minutes hyung," Jaemin's raspy voice says, eyes focused on the digital clock behind Jeno.

For a fraction of a second, he can see fear flicker through Jaemin's eyes.

"Who do you think you're gonna get?" Jaemin thinks he feels more uneasy about this than Jeno does, and quite frankly, it's believable that Jaemin is more nervous. He's excited for Jeno, he's happy that after waiting eighteen years he's finally going to get his soulmate tattoo, but he's a mess of nerves because he doesn't want Jeno to get any other name except his own. Jaemin wants to see ' _Na Jaemin_ ' imprinted somewhere on Jeno's body.

Jaemin might be selfish but his whole world will come crashing down if his name isn't the one that appears on Jeno's forearm. Jaemin loves Jeno. What's going to happen if Jeno is fated to be with someone else?

In present time, Jeno's face contorts from smiling tiredly to sadly looking his boyfriend.

"It's going to be you, Nana," Jeno says, and his voice sounds so confident that Jaemin almost forgets that the universe is who chooses the name that's going to appear on his boyfriend's arm, _not_ Jeno.

"I love you. You're my soulmate." The younger's heart flutters at his hyung's affectionate words.

"I love you too Jeno hyung," Jaemin reciprocates, deciding to keep quiet about what Jeno said about being soulmates.

Somewhere in Jaemin's stomach, he feels a pit form. It's like something is telling him that something will go wrong. It's like he can sense that everything will change when Jeno gets his tattoo.

At 11:59pm, Jeno can feel his left forearm burning. It's the tattoo coming along. He nudges Jaemin's side, urging the younger to come watch as his name shows up on Jeno's forearm.

Jaemin feels the pit in his stomach grow for an unknown reason, but nonetheless joins Jeno by his side.

Instead of coming out as a traditional black, dark blue, dark green, or Jaemin's favourite colour (dark purple), the first splash of ink on Jeno's arm is orange.

Jaemin's least favourite colour is orange.

He still watches, keeps his eyes trained on his boyfriend's forearm as he stares at the letters that start to form. The first letter to come up was an ' _L_ '.

There is no ' _L_ ' in ' _Na_ _Jaemin_ '.

Jeno's eyebrows furrow while Jaemin feels his heart sink, completely pummel to the bottom of his stomach. His eyes are still watching Jeno's forearm, watching the name that's getting spelt out.

 _Lee_ _Donghyuck_.

Jeno whips his head to look at Jaemin, to make sure he's okay.

He isn't.

His eyes are filled to the brim with unshed tears because _he loves Jeno_.

But he's not his soulmate.

Jaemin's eyes never leave Jeno's forearm.

 

+

 

Mark never told Donghyuck where his soulmate tattoo was.

At first, Donghyuck was insistent to look at his name bloom on Mark's thigh in bright orange, but the latter wouldn't let him. Donghyuck threw a fit as first, because he's Lee Donghyuck, Mark's _boyfriend_ , and he deserves to watch Mark's soulmate tattoo appear on his thigh. Mark hides his tattoo with makeup and refuses to shower with Donghyuck, making up stupid excuses. Donghyuck ends up forgetting about it though. Since nothing shifts in his relationship with Mark, especially his feelings, Donghyuck forgets about the tattoo.

The actor is still happily dating his amazing boyfriend without any complications, and Mark seems to love Donghyuck equally as much as he did before the elder's eighteenth birthday. So it doesn't matter to Donghyuck anymore. It's obviously his name inked into Mark's skin anyways. If it wasn't, something would've changed by now. It was going smooth for them, as they continue to ignore the pressing topic of soulmate tattoos.

But it's today, April 24th at three o'clock in the morning that Mark decides that he wants to tell Donghyuck about his soulmate _tattoos_. "Hey baby," Mark murmurs into the silence of the younger's room. "I need to tell you something."

Mark can fucking feel how Donghyuck tenses when he's at least six feet away, which leaves him to wonder why only one of the two names inked onto his skin is Donghyuck's.

"Don't be nervous," Mark adds, sitting down next to Donghyuck, where he's laying down and using his phone. "Just breathe."

Mark can't tell Donghyuck to just breathe, because it doesn't work like that. Donghyuck doesn't _just_ _breathe_ , he's internally panicking at thoughts of what Mark would ever want to talk about. From the short phrases the elder was saying, Donghyuck doesn't think it could be anything positive.

"O-Okay," he nonetheless stutters, sitting up straight to be beside Mark.

"I wanna show you my soulmate... _Tattoos_." Mark is cautious as he says the word ' _tattoos_ ', not knowing how Donghyuck would react to there being more than one.

"T-Tattoos?" The younger gulps, not having enough willpower or energy (suddenly feeling lightheaded) to process what this meant for his relationship with Mark.

"The first one is here," the elder mumbles, disregarding Donghyuck's question while rolling up his loose shorts to the highs of his thighs, exposing the middle, where a short name was written in dark green ink.

 _Lee_ _Jeno_.

Donghyuck doesn't know who Lee Jeno was.

But more importantly... _He wasn't Mark's soulmate?_

The thought makes him extremely vulnerable. He never thought the possibility of his name not being inked on Mark's body was, well, possible. He's always been confident in knowing that he was Mark's soulmate, that he and Mark shared something special. Donghyuck feels it, and he knows Mark does too.

So now with Mark's tattoo saying Lee Jeno, Donghyuck doesn't know how to feel. He knows he's sad, completely heartbroken, but more than anything, he's confused.

"But I have another," Mark whispers, taking Donghyuck's limp hand in his and squeezing reassuringly.

Donghyuck doesn't find it that reassuring.

"Right here Hyuckie, I love you." Mark says, continuing in a whisper as he takes his shirt off and places Donghyuck's hand right above his heart; where in orange letters, the name ' _Lee_ _Donghyuck_ ' is inked.

Donghyuck gasps, and if it's out of shock or happiness he doesn't know.

Donghyuck knows that it's uncommon, but it's not impossible for people to end up with two (or more) soulmate tattoos. He just didn't know that Mark would be one of the people who'd get two (or possibly more).

"I love you too Mark hyung." The younger boy mumbles, clutching onto Mark's wrist, which belonged to the hand that was holding Donghyuck's other hand to the elder's bare chest. "But what does this mean?"

Mark didn't want to say that it meant that both he and Donghyuck had more than one soulmate, since there was still a chance that Mark wasn't Donghyuck's soulmate.

There were cases where someone's soulmate has a different person they're supposed to spend the rest of their lives with, it's not always that two people end up destined together. Sometimes there was one sided love and in the world of soulmates, there are a lot of broken hearts.

Donghyuck is still seventeen years old, and Mark doesn't know what he'd do if the former doesn't get his name inked somewhere (preferably on his collarbones).

"It means..." Mark starts, suckling his bottom lip between his teeth as he takes in how fearful Donghyuck looks. Mark knows it's scary, knows that when he so openly holds Donghyuck's sensitive and beautiful heart in his hands, while also finding out that he has another soulmate besides Donghyuck, the younger has no reason not to feel the way he was. Donghyuck was scared that Mark would leave him. That Mark would meet his other soulmate and decide that he was who he wanted to enjoy his life with. That Lee Jeno person instead of him.

But Mark loves Donghyuck. He's sure. He one hundred percent adores the younger with everything his body has to offer; and if he has another soulmate then he's sure that he's destined to love Lee Jeno with all his heart too. But he'll just have to find out when the right time comes. For now, he'll love Donghyuck, he'll remind Donghyuck that no matter what, Mark has a spot for him in his heart, and if his feelings for Donghyuck were to ever change, the only change would be that his feelings would grow.

"It means that I have you as my soulmate," Mark continues. "Along with someone else." He finishes in a murmur, bringing both of Donghyuck's hands, which are around his one hand, to his lips, kissing and caressing his knuckles. "I love you Hyuck."


	3. Chapter 3

"Jaemin please," Jeno begs, trailing behind the younger like a lost puppy. "I love you Jaemin."

Jaemin hasn't spoken to Jeno since the night of his eighteenth, after he quietly left his boyfriend's house without saying a word.

Jeno didn't know how to interpret it at first, so he decided to let Jaemin leave so he had time to figure things out on his own. He thought a day would be enough for Jaemin.

It wasn't.

It's been four days since Jeno has properly spoken to Jaemin, since he has held the boy, since he has kissed the boy.

Jeno doesn't know for how much longer he can go on like this.

It didn't take a rocket scientist to decipher that Jaemin meant a lot to Jeno, that Jaemin was everything Jeno could ever want in life.

But apparently, Jaemin didn't understand that.

Jaemin isn't Jeno's soulmate.

He doesn't want to get in between who Jeno is really supposed to end up with, he doesn't want to mess up Jeno's future for his own temporary contentment. Jaemin thinks that if he continues to hang out with Jeno, it's going to mess with the person Jeno is supposed to end up with. Jaemin doesn't want to feed himself false hope, doesn't want to continue dating Jeno if he was destined for someone else.

The only reason Jaemin hasn't explicitly said that they've broken up is because he can't bring himself to do it. Despite everything, Jaemin obviously doesn't want to break up with Jeno. Jeno was his first everything, relationship, boyfriend, kiss, first person he rode a roller coaster with and he hopes Jeno was going to be his first in many more things in the future. If Jaemin were to tell Jeno to his face that they were breaking up, that they were over, then that would really end it. Jaemin isn't ready to give up the person who means the world to him, the person who holds his entire heart.

But he also isn't ready to become the person to come between Jeno's happiness with his soulmate.

"Jaemin-ah~" Jeno whines, trying to act cute in order to get Jaemin to bat an eyelash in his direction for the first time in four days.

Jaemin really misses Jeno. He misses Jeno a lot. He wants Jeno to hold him again, he wants Jeno to leave kisses along the column of his throat and cuddle in his bed.

But he isn't Jeno's soulmate.

"I'm not your soulmate Jeno, stop." Jaemin says, in a voice which he hopes was stern and not soft, since that's how he felt looking at Jeno. Jeno was handsome and hot and beautiful and Jaemin becomes weak in the knees when he looks at the older boy. It makes Jaemin's stomach churn when he thinks that Jeno's soulmate will get to see this for the rest of their life. Not him.

Jeno sighs after Jaemin says this.

"I don't care." Jeno really doesn't care if ' _Jaemin isn't his soulmate_ '. If Jaemin wasn't his soulmate, Jeno wouldn't be as grossly in love with him. But he was. He's in love with Jaemin and hasn't thought about Lee Donghyuck since the tattoo appeared.

Okay, so maybe that's a lie. He's thought about Donghyuck. But how could he not? Donghyuck is supposedly his soulmate, how could Jeno not think about the person who he's ' _destined_ ' to love for the rest of his life? He's never even met Donghyuck, but the universe is telling him that that's who he's fated to be with. Jeno thinks it's bullshit, never mind that it's hurting Jaemin.

"It doesn't matter if you—" Jeno cuts Jaemin off before the latter can say something that will just end up making him upset.

"You are my boyfriend. You. Not Lee Donghyuck, but you, Na Jaemin. I love you and no soulmate tattoo will change that."

Jaemin wants to believe Jeno's words, wants to believe that Jeno falls into that little sliver of people who get the wrong soulmate and get stuck with the tattoo for the rest of eternity. But something, he can't name it, but something is just telling him that Jeno got the right tattoo.

"I'm not your soulmate," he mumbles again, but this time his tone is sadder, more lost and more confused. He wants to be Jeno's soulmate.

"Jeno hyung," Jaemin breathes out, closing his eyes because he can't do this while looking at the elder. Can't embarrass himself in front of the elder. "I love you. Don't leave me."

Jaemin is aware of how selfish this sounds, especially because Jeno knows that he knows that he has a different soulmate, but Jaemin can't help it. If there's one thing he'd never give up in this world; it's Lee Jeno. He'd give up his soul, his body, his brain, but he won't give up Lee Jeno.

The elder breathes out what seems to be a breath of relief.

"Don't be stupid Nana, I could never leave you," he says happily, quickly taking the younger into his arms, since he missed having Jaemin there. Jaemin missed it too. Missed it enough to tightly hold onto Jeno, because he doesn't want to let Jeno go.

\+ 

"So... Polyamory?"

Mark sighs, fingers stopping where they were stroking the little hairs on the base of Donghyuck's neck. They were at Mark's house tonight, and Donghyuck was researching the topic of multiple soulmates while Mark cuddled him. The elder was leaning back onto the couch in his living room, Donghyuck laying between his legs, head right under his collarbones.

"Yeah," Mark mumbles as a reply to what Donghyuck had said. After finding out that he had more than one tattoo, Mark has also researched what that meant. He discovered what a polyamorous relationship was, along with understanding that a healthy polyamorous relationship has all participants feeling equally for everyone else in the relationship. It was kind of hard to wrap his head around that concept when Mark hasn't even met Lee Jeno, and he keeps pushing it to the back of his mind. Mark believes that everything will play out nicely, that everything will fall into place when the time is right. He'll meet Lee Jeno when it's time to, and he'll find out if he's Donghyuck's soulmate next month. The possibility of Mark not being Donghyuck's soulmate made the elder's stomach churn uneasily.

Donghyuck sighs in present time, putting his phone down and molding into Mark's body behind him. It was a tiring day of school for the both of them, but Donghyuck had to stay an extra two hours to rehearse the school play. Mark decided to stick around and watch, like the supportive significant other he was. After that, the two of them had bused back to Mark's house, having the motivation to get their homework done, but that all melted away once Mark saw how Donghyuck's eyes drooped and said they should take a break.

It's been an hour since Mark suggested a break.

Donghyuck's hand was ghosting close to Mark's thigh, stopping right where the tattoo of Jeno's name is.

"He's ruining everything," Donghyuck whispers. hoping that Mark wouldn't hear. But that was stupid to think because there was barely any space between the two of them. Also, Mark harshly pinches Donghyuck's side after the younger said those words. "Don't be a brat. You don't know him, neither do I," Mark says, and there was nothing distinguishable in his tone.

This has Donghyuck turning around in his hold.

"You already taking his side?" He scoffs, crossing his arms over his chest childishly. "Please Lee, you haven't met him yet."

This time Mark scoffs, rolling his eyes lightly before looking Donghyuck in the eyes.

"C'mon _Lee_ , you haven't met him either." Mark has a point but Donghyuck won't admit it.

"Listen," Donghyuck says seriously, and there was a bit of bite in his tone which kept Mark intrigued. "Polyamory. I'm open to that." Donghyuck stops talking once he sees Mark's eyes light up, looking like an adorable child before going back to being ' _serious_ '. "But I want my tattoos before we meet him." Mark smiles at how Donghyuck says ' _we_ '. And ' _tattoos_ '.

"For sure," the elder promises, really glad to know that Donghyuck was okay and open to all of this. One of the things that Mark feared most when he found out he had more than one tattoo was how Donghyuck was going to react, if he was open to the idea of sharing or not. Mark knew that he had it in his heart to sport equal feelings for more than one person, he was just hoping that Donghyuck felt the same. Now that it seems like his prayers have been answered, Mark can contently wait until Donghyuck's birthday.

"We'll meet Lee Jeno after your birthday. After your tattoos," Mark declares, leaning his head to the side and kissing Donghyuck's cheek. Mark may not know Lee Jeno yet, might not even know if he's finished with only two tattoos, but one thing he does know is that he'd gladly embark on this new journey of relationships and self discovery with Donghyuck.

As for Donghyuck, he's terrified, completely petrified, but he won't let Mark know that. He wants to put on the best impression for when they meet Jeno and whoever else might get inked onto one their bodies, wants whoever it is to know that Mark was his and that if they wanted him for themselves, they'd have to pry Mark out of his dead, cold hands.


	4. Chapter 4

Jaemin still felt uneasy, really uneasy about the whole different soulmate thing. He loves Jeno, accepts that Jeno loves him back, but what he didn't accept was coming in between Jeno's future relationship.

Jaemin knows about relationships involving more than one person, polyamorous relationships, but what he doesn't know is that if he wants to be in one. Polyamorous relationships involve all members feeling equally for everyone in the relationship, and Jaemin just can't see himself split his heart for someone who isn't Lee Jeno. It sounds bad, but in the end it's only unfair to the third person in their currently hypothetical relationship.

Jeno doesn't talk about it as much as Jaemin thought he would, instead he dumps his words and energy into smothering Jaemin in so much love he might actually be annoyed with it for once.

"I'm so excited for your birthday Nana," Jeno says one day when the couple is eating lunch in the courtyard.

' _So you can see Donghyuck's name on my arm?_ ' is what Jaemin wants to say, but he's level headed and knows how to keep his thoughts to himself. Most of the time at least.

"Wait two weeks," Jaemin settles on answering, taking a bite out of his sandwich and sighing after chewing for a bit.

Something was on his mind. Something which hasn't left his mind since he found out about Jeno's tattoo. Soulmates are often people you know, or are at least acquainted with. Your soulmate usually isn't someone who you've never met before, very rarely is it someone you don't know at all. But Jeno... Jeno doesn't know Lee Donghyuck, and it doesn't help that has has no clue who would know him either. It also really doesn't help that Jaemin and Jeno have never heard the name come out of anyone's mouth, it's not like Lee Donghyuck and someone in their school could be mutuals, because quite frankly, no one knows who Donghyuck is.

"How are you going to meet Donghyuck?" Jaemin asks, turning to face Jeno, who takes a large bite out of his granola bar. Jaemin thinks he's gross, that Jeno should at least wait until he finished answering Jaemin's question to ravish his snack, instead of speaking with his mouth full of oats, like he will do now.

"I don't know," he simply answers, shrugging and swallowing his mouthful. "It'll just happen I guess."

Jaemin squints at his hyung, because his hyung can be stupid sometimes.

"You believe in the universe too much."

And it's true. Jeno is one of those people who believes that everything happens for a reason, and that the universe is in charge of all the decisions. And that would be fine, if his beliefs to the universe ended there, not that Jaemin has the right to bash Jeno for what he believes in, it's just that Jaemin finds it extra. Jeno believes that everything will play out according to how the universe wanted it to play out. Jeno thinks that even what he eats for breakfast and which type of toothpaste he buys is decided by the universe.

"I'm serious. We'll meet him when the time is right," Jeno says seriously, defending himself as he finishes his granola bar.

Jaemin didn't have a problem with Jeno believing what he did, it's just in this particular scenario he wants a clear, given answer, something Jeno isn't giving him.

Then, Jaemin gets an even wilder thought.

"What if Donghyuck is a girl?"

Jeno chokes.

Donghyuck _can't_ be a girl. The universe can't fuck up that bad, Jeno is the gayest of the gays, the crème de la crème of homosexuals. The universe knows that, right?

In this moment, Jeno thinks that Jaemin needs to get his mind checked over, since the universe obviously knows that Jeno is gay and can never sport any romantic or sexual feelings for a girl.

"You're messed in the head Nana," Jeno settles on saying, catching his breath after choking and gulping down water from his bottle. "As if."

Jaemin merely shrugs.

 

 

+

 

 

Mark gets another tattoo.

Donghyuck thinks he might just cry.

 _Cover Minhyung hyung's entire body in tattoos while you're at it universe! Is he destined to be with everyone?_ Is what Donghyuck yells into the atmosphere when he's home alone.

Something that doesn't necessarily piss Donghyuck off, but it makes him question Mark, is that Mark doesn't have a problem with having three soulmate tattoos on his body.

The last one inked itself on the side of his torso, near his left rib cage. Donghyuck didn't even like the name of this person. It had an awful ring to it, especially when you put it beside Mark Lee. It was inked in dark purple calligraphy, something which also made Donghyuck gag, since his least favourite colour was purple.

Donghyuck doesn't tell Mark any of these thoughts though, so Mark can't tell him that he's being too harsh.

Na Jaemin should never have been added to their relationship.

Heck, Lee Jeno should have never been added either.

Just as Donghyuck was starting to get used to having a third person enter their relationship, the universe decides to be a fuck up by adding Na Jaemin to the equation. Donghyuck hasn't even met Na Jaemin, but he already hates him with a passion.

Donghyuck was there when Mark got his third tattoo, it was when Mark was changing out of his sweater into a t-shirt that Donghyuck saw the purple words forming. At first Donghyuck got mad at Mark because it was obvious that he was trying to hide his tattoo from Donghyuck, because the younger knows that the person receiving the tattoo always knows when they're going to get it. They feel the burn and tingle but Mark didn't say anything. If Donghyuck hadn't seen it for himself, he's sure Mark would've made him wait before telling him.

"I just don't want you to feel overwhelmed," Mark had explained as his reasoning, which leads to Donghyuck almost killing him because he can't get any more overwhelmed than he already was.

"Don't hide things," is what Donghyuck simply retorts, yanking Mark's shirt up to see the tattoo. The tattoo was small and you had to really look for a few seconds to find out what it said.

Na Jaemin.

 _That's not even a nice name_ , Donghyuck thinks, glaring at the tattoo as if it would make Na Jaemin, wherever he is, feel his hatred from where Donghyuck was.

Mark, knowing what Donghyuck was up to, rolls his eyes and pulls his shirt back down, flopping onto the younger's bed right after.

"What the heck hyung," Donghyuck grumbles, since Mark had a thing about Donghyuck swearing. "You have three soulmates?"

Mark shrugs, feeling how Donghyuck didn't know if he was confused or mad. Mark could feel how Donghyuck was internally seething because he already wasn't cool with the people from school ogling at Mark, but then he gets a second soulmate. Fine, it can be that way, Donghyuck has learned to accept it because he can't do anything since the universe has decided that they're soulmates. But then the universe decides to fuck with Donghyuck because _hey, that's fun_ , so here Mark is now, currently sporting three soulmate tattoos.

"I guess. That's what my body is showing me."

Mark could also feel how Donghyuck was confused. He felt like a lost puppy because his boyfriend, his first love, his first kiss, his entire world was supposed to be shared with two more people? Mark was precious to Donghyuck, the most prized thing in his heart, someone who he doesn't want to share.

"Donghyuck, baby, we've been over this," the elder sighs, sitting up a bit on the bed and reaching for Donghyuck's limp hand resting on the side of his body.

Donghyuck snatches his hand back.

"No, Minhyung! Why do you have so many soulmates?" Donghyuck asks, not particularly shouts, but asks loudly. Mark knows that when Donghyuck uses his birth name, it's serious.

"Donghyuck, how do you expect me to answer that?" He questions, arching one of his thick eyebrows. Donghyuck can't seriously expect Mark to answer that, can he? It's not like he woke up one day and asked the universe for more than one soulmate. It's just fated like that.

The younger one of the two boys grumbles, seeming to understand how ridiculous his question was.

"I'm mad at you," he settles on saying, sitting down on his desk chair and getting his laptop out. Mark sighs, but doesn't get up to talk to Donghyuck. He knows that the younger isn't really mad at him, this is just his way of coping: blaming things on Mark. So the elder lets him be, knowing that Donghyuck will come around. Mark doesn't know how he knows that Donghyuck will come around, he just feels it.


	5. Chapter 5

"Don't."

Jeno pouts, throwing a frown in with it too, because he wanted to.

He also wanted to take Jaemin to Jeju for his birthday, but Jaemin isn't letting him.

"Why~?" Jeno whines, continuously shaking Jaemin's arm to try to get him to give into his ministrations. "Let me spoil you."

 _But that's the problem_ , Jaemin thinks, continuing their walk back home. _You spoil me too much_.

Jeno... Well, it wasn't like Jeno was poor, but he wasn't rich. Jaemin wouldn't say he was well off either, since Jeno is just average. Jaemin is average too, which is why he knows how expensive a three day trip to Jeju would be.

Jaemin likes being spoiled, but he didn't like being a sugar baby. Jeno was Jaemin's boyfriend, not sugar daddy, which leads Jaemin to continue to support that they just stay in Seoul and enjoy their time together, like how they did for Jeno's birthday.

But Jeno is annoying and Jeno thinks Jaemin is boring, which is why he's still strongly protesting, a whole fifteen minutes after he first suggested the idea.

"Because. I don't wanna go anywhere special."

Truth be told, anywhere with Jeno is special to Jaemin. Be it the school bathroom or in Jaemin's murky attic, anywhere with Jeno made Jaemin happy. Those moments are even more special now, because soon, Jaemin won't have Jeno to himself anymore. Soon, those moments won't be as intimate.

"I just—" Jaemin sighs, stopping walking to look at Jeno. Jeno couldn't decipher what was going on in his eyes. "I just want to spend time with you hyung. I don't need anything fancy, but I appreciate the thought a lot." Jaemin explains, keeping his voice monotone, and Jeno truly couldn't tell what Jaemin was feeling at the moment. Jeno also wonders why the younger was talking so robotically, if he was okay or not.

But before anything; he'd have to address what Jaemin had just said.

"No! I'm taking you away because this birthday is a special one, and you don't get a say Nana!" Jaemin remembers when he was grossly in love with Jeno and so pliant to do absolutely anything he desired. Jaemin wonders where those times have went, and why Jeno was so persistent about this.

"What's so special about Jeju?" Jaemin asks, expecting an answer from the male who throws an arm around his shoulders.

"Everything!" Jeno yells, looking at Jaemin like he hadn't seen the light of life if he didn't know how special Jeju was. "It'll be even more special with you!"

Sometimes, Jeno hypes things up too much, like right now.

"And you wanna go there for my birthday?"

Jeno nods affirmative.

Jaemin doesn't see why they can't simply spend his birthday here, but he also thinks that Jeno has thought about this a lot, considering how it was the beginning of June and Jeno was thinking about his birthday in August.

"Alright hyung," Jaemin smiles, kissing the elder's cheek. "You can take me."

 

+

 

"I don't wanna go to Seoul for my birthday. I like Jeju."

"You haven't left Jeju in years," Mark sighs, folding his t-shirt before putting it into his drawer. "You need to explore."

Donghyuck would have liked to say that Mark could explore his ass, but the elder doesn't like him cursing.

"I can do that later in life," Donghyuck says instead, waving off the topic before Mark can continue. Mark doesn't seem to get the memo.

"Donghyuck-ah~" He continues to whine, now pouting at Donghyuck because he knows Donghyuck can't resist when he does that. "Let me take you somewhere."

Truth be told, Donghyuck is awkward. Donghyuck doesn't know how to repay Mark if he were to take him on a trip to Seoul for his birthday. Plane tickets are expensive, Donghyuck wasn't allowed to drive and Mark didn't have his license.

"Mark hyung—"

"Won't you let me spoil you, baby?" Mark asks, and there's a such a little hint of teasing in his tone that it has Donghyuck almost, almost keening, but he keeps it together and defeatedly looks at Mark, letting himself frown before leaning into the older male.

"I can't repay you," he admits honestly, enjoying the way Mark throws an arm around him. Donghyuck won't ever admit it, but he loves Mark treating him like the most fragile person in the world, because Donghyuck was the kind of person who needed and deserved a lot of kisses and cuddles, needed and deserved endless love. Something he won't be able to provide for Donghyuck once he meets his second soulmate.

"You don't have to— Is that why you're hesitating?" The elder boy asks, picking Donghyuck's head up with both his hands, bringing his eyes to eye level. Donghyuck chews on his bottom lip and Mark gets his answer. "You're so cute, you don't need to repay me," Mark sighs, smiling cutely and then kissing Donghyuck's nose.

"Please let me take you out. You deserve it and I want you to have fun on your special day." Donghyuck feels his heart clench painfully in his chest, probably reacting a bit too much at his boyfriend's sweet words. Mark always knew what to say, always knew how to brighten the mood and make him happy. Maybe even convinced him to go to Seoul for his birthday.

"What do you say?" Mark pesters, nuzzling his nose with Donghyuck's in a disgusting couple's act.

Maybe Donghyuck was thinking too much about how soon, Mark wouldn't be only his anymore. Maybe he was thinking too much about how Mark would find another person to love. Maybe he was thinking about how he wouldn't be able to spend as much time as he does now with Mark, when the third addition into their relationship is present. Donghyuck's been thinking too much, he knows that. Mark knows that too, he knows his soulmate like the back of his hand. So for now, Mark knows Donghyuck will nod, which he does, because for now, Donghyuck will stop thinking, and enjoy Mark being only his for the last few days.


	6. Chapter 6

"Lee Jeno! Lee Jeno! Lee Jeno!"

For a soft spoken theatre nerd, Jaemin sure knows how to cheer loud enough to burst someone's eardrum. Or at least, that's what Jisung thinks while sitting next to him.

Jisung is a year under Jaemin, but somehow still ended up being friends with the elder boy. Currently, Jaemin had somehow convinced and dragged Jisung to watch Jeno's soccer game with him. It's not particularly something Jisung minds, considering how his crush was also on the soccer team, but he wouldn't let Jaemin know that. He doesn't even know if Jaemin would pay attention, since he's so busy ripping his throat apart in the name of chanting Jeno's name. Jisung thinks he's too loud, thinks he should've brought duct tape with him, thinks that Na Jaemin needs a zipper on his mouth, but then the elder boy is eagerly throwing an arm around Jisung while excitedly, and successfully capturing Jisung in a headlock.

"They won! Nono's team won!" Jaemin says with a smile that reaches ear to ear, and if Jisung was being honest, is he sure he isn't being blinded by Jaemin's smile?

"Yes I can see that," Jisung grumbles lowly, trying to escape Jaemin's death hold. Jisung doesn't even have time to breathe in a proper breath of air before Jaemin is sprinting down the bleachers to congratulate Jeno.

Jisung is grateful that Jaemin finally leaves him alone, because now, he can go quietly, and as subtly as possible, make his way over to Chenle, player 03 on the soccer team.

"Nono!" Jaemin squeals, _squeals_ , but truth he told, no one's surprised. "You did it!" Jeno laughs, and it's so pure that it makes Jaemin's heart ache.

The older boy throws both his fists up in the air, hollering what draws a lot of cheers from the crowd.

"Off to semis baby!" Jaemin shrieks in contentment with him, Jisung can hear it from where he's hiding on the other side of the field, and he really thinks that Jaemin is louder than Chenle, who is screeching with excitement from winning their game.

Jaemin throws himself at Jeno, squeezing him in praise as a congratulations, bouncing up and down while causing Jeno to do the same. The whole school always thought that Jeno and Jaemin were _that_ loud couple, but it was really accentuated at these games.

"You're amazing, you're so good Nono," Jaemin whispers after he's calms down slightly, leaning back to cup Jeno's cheeks while nuzzling their noses in a sickeningly cute way. "I'm proud of you." Jeno beams at the praise, especially because it came from Jaemin, before smashing their lips together messily. Jaemin doesn't resist, why on earth would he resist, before looping his arms around Jeno's neck, ignoring wolf whistles and other cheers from the crowd.

When Jeno does pull away, it's because he feels the commencement of downpour on his matted black hair.

"Shit," he mumbles, holding Jaemin's head under his chin as he looks up at the sky, and for sure, the clouds were a dark and heavy grey colour. "It's gonna rain Nana."

"I don't care," Jaemin mumbles, manoeuvring his head out from under Jeno's chin, returning to their original position before nipping at Jeno's bottom lip. "Kiss me hyung."

Jaemin's always craved affection, but this is next level. Jaemin's always been a romantic, but Jeno wasn't expected the full fledged soap opera scene, you know, making out under the rain. Jaemin's always been persistent and needy, so he isn't surprised when he finds himself eagerly licking into Jaemin's mouth, tongue parting through the younger's plush lips. It's cold, and it's disgusting with all the added wetness coming from the fat raindrops from above, washing away Jaemin's makeup and Jeno's sweat.

"Messy," Jeno smiles, tackling Jaemin in a hug, making him fall into the wet and muddy grass below them. Jaemin squirms, because the mud was wet grass was uncomfortable underneath his thin t-shirt.

Jeno doesn't care.

He only cares and gets off of Jaemin when the younger sneezes.

"Shit," he mumbles, quickly standing up and holding a hand out for Jaemin to take. He accepts the hand, standing next to the elder boy. "You're gonna get sick." Jaemin simply giggles, latching onto Jeno's neck again before kissing him some more.

"Inside," Jeno mumbles against the pair of addictive lips he loves so much. "Inside, calm down baby." He laughs, swiftly trailing a hand down Jaemin's arm to lace their fingers together and then sprinting to the locker rooms.

Jaemin heartily laughs as he's being dragged by his boyfriend and Jeno doesn't think he's ever been more in love.

 

:

 

"Pack your bags~" Mark sing songs, uncharacteristically skipping into Donghyuck's room. Well, it wasn't really uncharacteristic, Mark was cute sometimes. However, it was uncharacteristic and inconvenient when all Donghyuck needed to do was memorize his script for the upcoming school production.

"Shut the entire fuck up Minhyung," Donghyuck grumbles, not even looking away from his script when he cursed at Mark. The elder's jaw is dropped, appalled at Donghyuck for using such language.

"Hey, did you just curse at me?"

Donghyuck sighs, Mark can hear the irritation in it, before he's whipping around so quickly Mark is afraid he got whiplash. 

"Yes. Yes hyung, I did curse at you! Would you like me to curse again?" The younger asks, flailing his arms around to try and communicate just how exasperated he really was. Mark doesn't like that.

"Hey," he says sternly, arching an eyebrows in a testing way. "Watch it Hyucks." Donghyuck rolls his eyes and Mark doesn't know if he should confront him about it or not. Donghyuck being sassy could only mean one thing; he was stressed.

I mean, Donghyuck was always naturally sassy, but the extra sassiness means that there's a bit too much on his plate at the moment.

Mark decides to keep quiet, settling on the fact that if Donghyuck really has something to say, he'd say it all in good time.

About fifteen more minutes go by with Mark reading an old book he found on his boyfriend's shelf while said person is mumbling lines under his breath, gradually increasing in volume.

" _'And the qu'orchestrer simply couldn't just watch awake-'_ Watch laying awake, damnit!" Donghyuck's outburst startles Mark so much that he feels the boom in his chest, almost falling off of the bed because Donghyuck was so loud.

Before he could scold Donghyuck for almost killing him, the younger throws his papers at the wall and angrily stands up, starting to pace around his bedroom while muttering his lines in rage. Mark thinks Donghyuck needs to calm down. So he tells him that much.

"Hyuck," Mark calls, but the younger simply ignores him, continuing his actions. Mark sighs before getting up to his feet. "Donghyuck—" Mark makes a move to grab the younger's arm, but he simply rips it away, turning to face Mark with a red face and fire in his eyes.

"What?" Donghyuck yells, and it honestly takes a lot in Mark not to flinch, to just take his boyfriend's words. "Just fucking leave me alone!" Mark tolerates Donghyuck's cursing, and even if Mark really has no say in what Donghyuck does with his life, the younger listens to his no cursing rule. Most times he doesn't though, and that's fine, it doesn't bother Mark too much, but when it's directed at him, negatively might I add, he has to put his foot down.

"Donghyuck, calm down," Mark says in a low voice, and Donghyuck is reminded of how he has already went through puberty in the back of his head. But through all his rage and anger, he doesn't hear Mark telling him to calm down.

"Fuck you," he settles on retaliating, growling lowly in his throat before stomping downstairs. Mark pinches the bridge of his nose before following after him.

In the kitchen, Mark finds Donghyuck aggressively drinking a glass of water and slamming it down onto the counter when he's finished. He's panting heavily as he uses the sleeve of his orange sweatshirt to wipe the excess water away from his mouth, one hand on his hip.

"You done now?" The eldest in the kitchen asks, switching to his sweet and caring tone, which Donghyuck is more familiar with, arms crossed over his chest. Before responding, Donghyuck thinks Mark deserves ' _boyfriend of the century_ ', and then he lets his face crumble into an ugly expression as he feels pressure build behind his eyes. Donghyuck sniffs and suddenly looks so small in his, which is actually Mark's, orange sweatshirt, his fringe falling over his eyes as fat tears start to roll down his cheeks.

"Hyuck-ah..." Mark says softly, opening his arms wide, so Donghyuck runs into them, crying against his white t-shirt. Mark frowns as he uses one hand to pat Donghyuck's back and the other to run through his hair while shushing him at the same time. Slowly, Mark starts to walk backwards, sliding down the wall once his back makes contact with him. He would've taken Donghyuck to the couch, but it was too far from the kitchen. Instead, Mark sits on the hallway floor with Donghyuck sobbing weakly between his arms.

"Is everything alright?" Mark asks once Donghyuck has calmed down a bit, still shaking slightly from how intensely his sobs had racked over his body.

"I-I can't M-Minhyung hyung, i-it's too much! I have to finish my l-lab report and hand in my geography p-project and the play is due soon, but I-I didn't memorize my lines, and M-Mom's birthday is soon, but I can't—"

"Breathe baby," Mark whispers, shushing Donghyuck while he continues to fiddle with his hair, Donghyuck shudders while he takes his deep breaths, falling limp against Mark after six deep breaths.

"You wanna talk?" Mark asks, and Donghyuck nods, starting his long, long talk about how shitty his week has been.

Mark doesn't think he's ever been this interested in something.


	7. Chapter 7

"Now you're sick."

"Totally worth making out in the rain though." Jeno rolls his eyes because he isn't surprised that kissing was the only thing on Jaemin's mind.

"Now, you can't go to school."

Jaemin smiles.

"Is that a bad thing?" He asks, foolishly slipping under the covers.

"You're the worst Na Jaemin," Jeno sighs, sitting down on the edge of Jaemin's bed. "What am I going to do with you?"

"Don't know," the younger boy shrugs, unintentionally acting adorable. "Just love me I guess." Jeno smiles, cause Jaemin's so cute, but then he realizes something.

"I need to buy you medicine," he hums, getting up from the younger's bed and straightening out his clothes.

Jaemin starts to whine.

"What? No you don't! My parents will pick up medicine on the way home. You stay here," he pouts, looking at Jeno with what he hopes are puppy eyes. Sometimes Jaemin is cocky, now being a good example. He knows Jeno is whipped for him and when he does something cute, he knows Jeno isn't able to resist. Which is why he thinks Jeno is broken when the elder boy shakes his head no.

"I'm your boyfriend and I'm going to pull a really lame romantic move by buying you some medicine." Jaemin likes romantic things. But Jeno was just being annoying.

"Fine," Jaemin huffs, turning his back to Jeno as he closes his eyes and tries to sleep. "Lock the door behind you." Jeno smiles, because Jaemin is real cute, before exiting the latter's room and descending the stairs. Once he's in the foyer, he toes on his shoes and opens the main door. Jaemin's family keeps their spare key in a little glass container which is buried in the soil of their little front yard flower garden. So Jeno takes the keys from there, locking the front door before putting the key away exactly how he found it.

He hums a tune while starting off his short walk to the grocery store, a light skip in his step.

Jeno guesses he's just happy. If you ask him, his life is going really great right now. The soccer team is going to the semi finals, he got to make out with Jaemin today, school is almost over and he sent in his university application. Things were going great for Jeno, they truly were.

Jeno has a bounce in his step when he enters the convenience store, shooting an adorable smile to the old lady behind the counter. Jeno keeps on humming while he's looking for the blueberry flavoured medicine he knows Jaemin likes. Jaemin already doesn't like medicine at all, thinks that all the flavours are satan's own creations, but blueberry is the only flavour he can tolerate.

He frowns when he can't find the blueberry flavour in the aisle he is currently standing in, and decides to go venture further into the next one.

As he hurriedly switches between aisles, there's a boy with light orange hair wearing a green sweater that bumps into him.

Jeno is usually graceful, especially on the soccer field, but this orange haired man sends him tumbling to the floor. Jeno groans, because falling always makes the victims groan, before turning to his left to see if the orange haired boy needed help getting up.

"Sorry about that," Jeno mumbles, holding a hand out for the boy. He accepts, pulling himself up and brushing his clothes off when he's standing. Jeno wasn't planning on keeping a conversation going, wasn't planning on getting to know the orange haired boy or anything about his life to be honesty, but then someone from behind Jeno grabs his arm, and the grip is unusually tight for someone Jeno can't see. When the black haired boy turns his head around, he's greeted by another unknown boy, this time wearing an orange hoodie. His hair is light brown and Jeno can see his dark black roots growing.

"Can I help you?" Jeno asks, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion, since he doesn't know this boy, but the boy seems rather shocked to see him. The one with orange hair makes his way around to stand beside the one who's gripping Jeno, which makes the latter so much more confused. To make matters worse, the orange haired boy suddenly also holds onto Jeno's arm. All he wanted was to buy some blueberry medicine for his sweet sick boyfriend who's resting at home, but instead he's held up at the convenience store because of two random boys clinging onto his arm and if it wasn't—

But then, Jeno's forearm starts burning. Not the burn that people get when it's too hot, not the burn that people get when they touch their plate which was in the microwave for too long, but the burn which felt like thousands of fire ants were just crawling on this one part of Jeno's forearm, coincidentally, right where his soulmate tattoo is.

Jeno's eyes widen in realization, before his gaze is flicking between the two boys holding onto him, trying to figure out which one of them is Lee Donghyuck.

"Y-You're Jeno..." The one with the light brown hair splutters, eyes widening once the words escape his mouth. "Oh my God, you're Lee Jeno!" Jeno winces at the shriek the boy let out, considering how the store was empty.

Nonetheless, he finds himself nodding.

"Are you..." He tentatively asks, still not understanding why there were two people holding onto him. "Donghyuck? Lee Donghyuck?" The brown haired boy's eyes dim a little, eyes piercing into Jeno as his eyes flicker between Jeno and the other boy. The one with orange hair makes a sound of surprise.

"I-I'm Donghyuck. Why?" He stutters out, watching how Jeno's eyes bulge out of his eye sockets while switching from between Donghyuck and his forearm. The boy with light brown hair, let's go of Jeno's arm and Donghyuck takes it upon himself to roll up Jeno's sleeve.

Right there, staring right back at all three boys, completely mocking the one with light brown hair, is the name Lee Donghyuck calligraphed in soft, orange letters. Donghyuck gasps, head zooming up to Jeno's eyes.

"I-Is that a s-soulmate tattoo?" Donghyuck asks, not realizing how stupid the question was.

Jeno is speechless, completely incapable of uttering a single word, because _is he staring at his soulmate_?

"Fuck," the other boy curses, running a distressed hand through his hair. "Fuck Donghyuck that's—that's Lee Jeno. That's my soulmate." Those words have Jeno whipping his head to look at the one wearing an orange sweater, his eyes comically huge.

"You're soulmate? I don't even know who you are," Jeno claims, staring at the boy with his eyebrows furrowed.

"My name is Mark Lee and your name is tattooed onto my thigh."

Jeno finds it hard to grasp the information, but finds it even harder to process the fact that he has Lee Donghyuck's name inked onto his skin, and Mark Lee has his name inked onto his skin.

Jeno completely forgets about Jaemin's blueberry medicine.

 

:

 

When Mark and Donghyuck get to Seoul, Donghyuck's just really tired. They flew all the way here, so Donghyuck could just imagine how sleepy and spent Mark was, considering that he was constantly talking to Donghyuck throughout the whole flight.

Just when Donghyuck was about to suggest that they head straight to their hotel, Mark suggests something even better.

"Let's stock up on food," he says, stroking the hairs on the back of Donghyuck's neck. "I'll hail a cab."

Donghyuck hums, affirmative, before leaning more into Mark, forcing the older boy to take his body weight. Not that Mark minds, he just keeps an arm around the younger's back to keep him balanced. By the time the cab is hailed, and the two boys are sitting in the back seat, Donghyuck is an inch away from passing out against Mark's shoulder. It's only 7:45am, Donghyuck and Mark had booked an early flight.

The cab ride is silent, save for Mark entertaining Donghyuck by humming the tune to one of their favourite songs. But that only makes Donghyuck more sleepy.

The next time Donghyuck opens his eyes, he realizes that Mark is paying the cab driver, and that they're in front of a convenience store.

"Let's go," Mark says, reaching for Donghyuck's hand. When the younger takes it, they both exit the cab and thank the driver before heading inside the store, their baggage in tow.

"Let's make this quick. You get food, and I'll get safety stuff, medicine and shit," Donghyuck mumbles, rubbing the sleepiness out of his eyes before entering the store and splitting from Mark.

When Donghyuck is rounding an aisle to get to the medicine, a large figure wearing a red hoodie bumps into him, sending them both to the floor. For some odd reason, instead of feeling the urge to groan because of the pain, Donghyuck feels a pit form in the bottom of his stomach.

When the black haired stranger offers a hand to help Donghyuck up, he subconsciously accepts and is now standing up on his feet. Before anything could happen, Mark suddenly pops out of nowhere, grabbing onto the black haired boy's arm.

Donghyuck feels the pit in his stomach grow tenfold.

It was the look that Donghyuck saw in Mark's eyes, Mark looked like he saw an angel sent from heaven. It made Donghyuck uneasy.

He turns his head back to the black haired boy— just to see— and is horribly intrigued when he notices that his eyes are wide, as if sudden realization hit him. In the back of Donghyuck's head, he knew where this was going. Buried under every other scenario which could possibly be happening, the only logical one was hidden.

Donghyuck thinks he feels his heart sink to the soles of his feet when Mark speaks.

"Y-You're Jeno..." Mark splutters, eyes widening when realization really hits him. "Oh my God, you're Lee Jeno!" Donghyuck is staring directly at Lee Jeno.

Lee Jeno, the first one who started messing with the dynamics of Donghyuck's relationship.

Mark's other soulmate.

He doesn't know whether he feels relieved to have finally met Jeno, or if he feels like crap because Jeno is so much more handsome than Donghyuck is. All of Donghyuck's insecurities start to crawl up his throat, and he feels sick. The next words which are spoken make Donghyuck confused.

"Are you..." The black haired boy tentatively asks. "Donghyuck? Lee Donghyuck?"

Donghyuck makes a sound at that, because was he asking Mark if he was Donghyuck?

"I-I'm Donghyuck. Why?" He stutters out, watching how Lee Jeno's eyes bulge out of his eye sockets while switching from between him and his forearm.

Donghyuck is painfully aware of where this was going.

He suckles his bottom lip between his teeth before saying ' _fuck it_ ' and takes it upon himself roll up Jeno's sleeve.

What's revealed is mocking him, his own name written out in orange is blatantly mocking him.

"I-Is that a s-soulmate tattoo?" He still asks, even when the answer is obvious, when that is a fucking soulmate tattoo of his name inked onto Jeno's forearm.

"Fuck," Mark curses, running a distressed hand through his hair. "Fuck Donghyuck that's—that's Lee Jeno. That's my soulmate."

Donghyuck turns his attention back to Mark, who's also bitting his bottom lip, looking like he was deep in thought while trying to process all of this. Donghyuck is absolutely mortified by the scenario that is unraveling itself.

"You're soulmate? I don't even know who you are," Lee Jeno shrieks, staring at Mark with his eyebrows furrowed. Donghyuck feels as confused as Jeno's tone lets on.

"My name is Mark Lee and your name is tattooed onto my thigh." Is what Mark answers, and when he says it out loud, the severity really hits Donghyuck. Mark is looking at his soulmate, Lee Jeno, while Lee Jeno is looking at his soulmate, Lee Donghyuck.

Donghyuck completely forgets about buying medicine and food.


	8. Chapter 8

"Jeno?"

Jeno smiles sheepishly, toeing off his shoes and bowing to the two people who are staring at him with surprised eyes.

"Hi. Is Jaemin upstairs?" He asks, shaking the bag of blueberry medicine. "I bought him medicine."

Jaemin's mom smiles softly.

"We already picked some up, but more is always good to have. He's resting upstairs Jeno." Jeno bites the inside of his cheek to keep from his expression going sour, regretting how he didn't get back to Jaemin earlier.

"Thank you," he mumbles, bowing curtly before stumbling up the stairs, quietly walking into Jaemin's slightly ajar door. Once he's inside, he closes the door fully. From what Jeno can see, Jaemin is sleeping on his side with the blankets up to his ears. He looks cute, like sushi wrapped up in seaweed, tight and protected. The stupid thought makes Jeno smile.

"Are you staring at me?" Jaemin asks in a hoarse voice, ripping Jeno out of his thoughts. The elder makes a noise of surprise.

"You're awake?" Jeno asks instead, disregarding what Jaemin asked. Jaemin doesn't move.

"You're late." He accuses, keeping his voice low, and even if Jaemin doesn't accuse him harshly, Jeno still feels his heart sink to the bottom of his stomach.

"I'm sorry," Jeno sighs, going to take a seat next to Jaemin, who looks adorably upset, lips jutting out and everything.

"What took you—" Jaemin starts, looking at the clock on his bedside table. "An hour and a half?" Jeno doesn't know what to say, doesn't know what will save his ass from Jaemin beating it to a pulp. He licks his lips nervously before deciding to fuck it and says the first thing that was on his mind.

"I went to the store across town," he blurts out, watching how Jaemin furrows his eyebrows.

"What?" The younger asks. "Why would you do that?" Jeno shrugs, hating himself for spewing the next lie that presents itself on the tip of his tongue.

"Wanted to take a walk." Jaemin hums, basically ignoring Jeno and the elder doesn't know what to do anymore. Jaemin surely couldn't have known that he was lying, right? He'd have to be some next level intellectual to decipher that. Not that Jaemin wasn't smart. But he wasn't a detective either.

"Nana~" Jeno now whines, stomping his foot childishly and Jaemin has to remind himself who's the younger one in their relationship. "Don't ignore me."

Jaemin doesn't even need to look at his boyfriend to know he's pouting. The younger sighs, turning around slowly in his bed, keeping the blankets around him.

"Don't ditch me again," he mumbles sleepily, and if the words didn't punch Jeno's heart, he'd be thinking about how cute Jaemin looks. "Hurts." Jeno frowns, in a soft way because everything Jeno Lee does is soft, before nodding solemnly and crawling into bed next to Jaemin.

"Sorry Nana," Jeno apologizes. "I don't wanna hurt you." Jaemin hums, he doesn't want to speak. Instead, he turns around so that he's snuggling his face into Jeno's chest.

"I love you Nono," he mumbles tiredly, and Jeno fondly pets his hair, letting him sleep peacefully. He was sick after all, he deserves to rest.

"I love you too."

 

+

 

"Donghyuck!" Mark yells exasperatedly.

The younger was walking way too fast for Mark, he couldn't keep up and Donghyuck wouldn't answer him either. He seemed fine when they were with Jeno, and by fine Mark means he didn't seem as pissed off. He only let his annoyance show when Jeno said that he had someone at home and ran out of the convenience store with blueberry medicine. Donghyuck immediately left to wait outside the store after storming off, and Mark was left to hurriedly pay for their food and catch up to him.

Mark hailed another cab and they rode to the hotel in silence, a complete contrast to when they were riding to the store. Donghyuck is silent and staring at the floor while Mark is checking into the hotel, and he all but runs to their room once he gets the floor number and keycard.

"Hyuck!" He yells again, going to grab Donghyuck wrist. "Donghyuck."

"What?" He mumbles, turning to Mark, but not looking at him. He'd rather look at the floor.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong!" Donghyuck spits, hating himself for feeling so sour and so moody at the moment.

Mark just wanted to be a good boyfriend and take him out for his birthday.

Donghyuck is the problem.

"Donghyuck—"

Mark isn't mad at Donghyuck. Mark isn't annoyed at him either. He just wants to know why he's upset. If Mark hated anything, it was seeing Donghyuck upset. All he ever wants is to see Donghyuck smiling if he's being honest, but sometimes Donghyuck is upset and he wants to know how to fix it.

"He's so pretty hyung!" Donghyuck finally says, his voice embarrassingly cracking at the end of his sentence. "Did you not see him Mark? He's beautiful!" Mark's mind goes back to think about Lee Jeno, since that's obviously who Donghyuck was talking about, and he can't deny that he is really handsome.

But Donghyuck shouldn't feel insecure about that.

Jeno was beautiful in his own way, and Donghyuck was beautiful in his own way.

Mark thinks they're both exceptionally pretty, both in their different and unique ways.

"So are you," the elder says, walking closer to Donghyuck again. "You're so pretty Hyuck."

"Mark, you—" Donghyuck cuts himself off, not knowing if what he was going to say would hurt his boyfriend or not.

_Mark you're gonna realize how much better he is than I am._

From what Donghyuck's seen in the brief ten minutes they were together in the convenience store, Lee Jeno is so charming. His natural beauty was intimidating, along with how he looked so effortlessly stunning in his simple hoodie and track pants. Jeno also seemed like such a good man, he was there to pick up medicine, and _didn't he say he had someone at home?_

"I'm not." Mark's voice says, causing Donghyuck to snap out of his thoughts. Donghyuck didn't say anything, didn't have to say anything, for Mark to understand what was going through his head.

Donghyuck felt insecure.

Like his relationship with Mark was really on the rocks after meeting with Jeno in person. And maybe it was. But they couldn't let it be on the rocks. They won't let it sink.

"I'm not. And if I do, you can kill me. Because I don't deserve to live if that means hurting you."


	9. Chapter 9

"You're packing now?" Jaemin frowns, watching as Jeno micro-folds his t-shirts. 

"I like to do things in advance." Jeno explains, grabbing another shirt and folding it the same way. 

"It's June 5th," Jaemin mumbles, picking at his cuticles. "Isn't it too early?"

"It is never too early," Jeno tsks. "You leave everything for the last minute."

Jaemin sighs, continuing to play with his cuticles. 

A few more moments go by in silence before Jeno stops packing, now skeptically looking at his boyfriend.

"What?" The elder asks, looking at Jaemin, who wasn't looking at him. "Is everything okay Nana?" 

"You didn't go for a walk that day," Jaemin mumbles, a slight pout forming on his features. 

Jeno is taken aback. How did Jaemin know this? 

Was Jeno that easy to read?

Was he that bad of a liar? 

"W-What?" He stutters, still looking at Jaemin from across the room. 

"You lied to me," Jaemin shrugs, finally picking up his head and looking at Jeno. "Why'd you lie?" 

Jeno opens and closes his mouth like a fish out of water, struggling to find the right words to say. 

He couldn't really get out of this, there was only one way to answer. 

Truthfully. 

"You're gonna kill me," he whispers, making his way to sit beside Jaemin. 

The younger turns to him and smiles, but Jeno can see how sad he looks behind it. 

"Maybe," he whispers back, looking back down at his lap. "Liar."

Jeno sighs, and he thinks that he really has no one but himself to blame. 

Jaemin hates liars, he's made that crystal clear in the beginning of their relationship. For some reason though, Jeno still thought he could get away with lying to Jaemin, especially when the latter knew that he wasn't a good liar to begin with. 

"I met some people when I was getting your medicine," Jeno starts, staring at Jaemin's side profile to be aware of any reactions. "I met... Donghyuck."

In Jaemin's head, he questions how it was even possible, how the odds of the universe were so against him that they made Jeno and Donghyuck meet, while in his heart, Jaemin feels it plumet to the ground.

Is this... What it feels like to get cheated on?

In the back of Jaemin's mind, he thinks it's a stupid question that he's asked himself, but that's what it feels like. 

Slowly, the younger's head turn to stare up at Jeno, who's smiling sheepishly while staring at Jaemin's expressionless face. 

"You met Lee Donghyuck?" Jaemin asks, tone also void of any emotion. 

Jeno hums. 

"I did."

Jaemin nods, ponders over the words which have been exchanged and then decides on telling Jeno that he was an asshole.

"You're an asshole," he says. "Why didn't you tell me?" 

Jeno knows that he'd have to go into detail if he told Jaemin, since the latter would keep on asking questions. 

"It's a long story—" Jeno starts, but the younger cuts him off. 

"I have time."

Jeno takes a deep, shuddering breath, shaking his shoulders free of tension before starting his story. 

"I went to the convenience store across the corner, I wanted to buy you the blueberry flavour medicine, since I know that's the only one you'd take. I bumped into two boys there—" Jaemin's eyebrows raise at the mention of two. "One of them was Donghyuck... And the other was a boy, Mark Lee, who had my name tattooed on his thigh—"

"You saw his thigh?" Jaemin asks, abruptly sitting up and ignoring the way his head spins.

Jeno's eyes widen, as if he was a deer caught in headlights. 

"No!" He immediately denies, waving his arms across each other to prove his words. "I did not! He just told me!" Jeno assures, and Jaemin decides to trust him.

"Is that all? You met your soulmate and a dude who has you as their soulmate?" Jaemin asks in a bored tone, too tired to even think about what it meant, now that someone other dude had Jeno's name inked into his skin. 

That was two people who Jeno and Jaemin (mostly Jeno) were connected to through soulmates. Four of them in total. 

"That's all that happened, yeah," Jeno starts, and splutters a bit at the end before finishing his sentence. "But I think this a messy situation." 

Jaemin already knows this is a messy situation. He doesn't need Jeno telling him that personally. 

He knows that Jeno has Donghyuck's name inked onto his skin, that some random boy named Mark Lee also has Jeno's name inked onto his skin and that he still hasn't received his tattoos. 

He knows how messy this whole situation is.

"Because I don't think Donghyuck's likes me. And I think that Mark dude is like Donghyuck's boyfriend or something. When I told him I had Donghyuck as a tattoo his eyes turned black, oh my God Nana it was so scary."

Jaemin thinks Jeno is stupid for thinking that Donghyuck not liking him is the biggest problem, and not that he's now with three people. 

"What about me?" He mumbles, once again, picking at his cuticles. 

"What about you?" Jeno asks, his tone dripping with genuine curiosity, which kills Jaemin on the inside. 

These past few weeks, Jeno has been drifting away from Jaemin, as the latter sees it. Even if Jeno doesn't think so, Jaemin sees the way he's acting differently. 

Changing conversation topics too easily, zoning out all the time and forgetting about Jaemin sometimes. 

Of course, Jaemin knows that Jeno loves him. 

Just... It wouldn't hurt Jeno if he could show it more often than not.

 

+

 

"Why don't you look excited?"

"Because I'm not," Donghyuck admits, playing with Mark's fingers while they're both sitting cross legged on the bed. 

It was June 6th, and Mark took Donghyuck out to all the famous places in Seoul, treating him to delicious street food and buying him a new stuffed toy and a new pair of couple's rings. 

Mark made sure Donghyuck had a great time during the day, showering him with endless kisses while Donghyuck thanked him with his 'I love you's. 

The elder brought Donghyuck back to their hotel at around 10:00pm, and surprised him with a strawberry cheesecake hiding in the hotel's fridge. 

The two teenagers have been enjoying that while speaking about anything and everything, until now. 

11:45pm. 

Fifteen minutes before Donghyuck gets his soulmate tattoo. Or tattoos. 

"No?" Mark frowns, looking at Donghyuck with the biggest puppy dog eyes that the latter may have ever seen. 

"Just nervous," the younger weakly smiles, slumping his shoulders and crawling into the space between Mark's open legs. "I could get your name... Or Jeno's name... Or Jaemin's name..." He sighs shakily. "Or someone else's name..."

There were three names which Donghyuck could have. 

His boyfriend's, and the two other names on his boyfriend's body. 

It's not like Donghyuck felt a connection with Lee Jeno and Na Jaemin which told him that they were potential soulmate candidates, it was just that since Mark had them, there was a chance that Donghyuck would have them, right? 

"So what?" Mark asks, playing with Donghyuck's hair in order to keep him calm. "You're still my soulmate Hyuckie."

Donghyuck thinks Mark is so sweet, the sweetest person he's ever met, and doesn't know how to tell the elder that sometimes. He just hopes his actions are enough most of the time. 

Like right now, as he looks up at Mark through his eyelashes with wide eyes and leans up to tenderly kiss his lips, he hopes it's enough to convey his feelings. To let Mark know that even if he's been a complete pain in the ass this entire week, he appreciates Mark taking him out to Seoul and making him feel special. 

"I love you," Donghyuck mutters, his fists tightening on the back of the elder's shirt. "Please don't forget that."

Mark brings his hands up to cup Donghyuck's face, rubbing his thumbs softly on his cheekbones. 

"I won't forget, don't be silly," he whispers, looking at Donghyuck so fondly with shining and loving eyes that it makes the younger feel fuzzy inside. "You're so special Lee Donghyuck. You're so perfect for me." 

The way Mark specifies that he's special for him makes Donghyuck feel like the luckiest, most loved person on earth. 

"And if you get someone else, even if it isn't me, or Jeno, or Jaemin, you'll still be my baby. My angel. My Donghyuckie." 

Just as Mark says that, just as Donghyuck leans closer for a kiss, he feels it. 

He feels his collarbones tingling. 

His breath hitches in his throat as he watches Mark train his eyes onto Donghyuck's neck.

Mark always said that his name would appear on Donghyuck's collarbones. 

He knows he can't see his own collarbones, so he doesn't even try, instead he looks into Mark's eyes, knowing he'll get his answer of who's name is inked there by the elder's eyes. 

They're dull, but he still smiles. 

He still smiles, because he won't let Donghyuck feel bad, knowing that he would if Mark let on any signs. 

But Donghyuck reads his eyes so well. 

When the younger opens his mouth to speak, his wrist starts to tingle. 

He feels dizzy because of how much is happening right now. 

This time, he can look at his wrist, so he does, watching how the name 'Lee Minhyung' inks itself onto his skin. 

Which means he has someone else on his collarbones. 

Donghyuck feels his eyes well up with tears. 

Everything was just so... Messy and complicated. 

Donghyuck puts his head on Mark's chest, letting a sob rip through his throat. 

He's grateful that he has Mark, that Mark is on his left wrist, but the fact that he has two already makes things complicated. 

"Who is it?" He asks, refusing to lift his head. He hears Mark sigh before the elder puts his hands on the younger's back soothingly. 

"Lee Jeno."


	10. Chapter 10

"You have Donghyuck's phone number!" Jaemin shrieks, glaring accusingly, and way too harshly, at Jeno. "Did this just happen to slip your mind? There are _hearts_ beside his name!"

Jeno thinks all blood has left his body, he feels like he's going to die, because Jaemin is looking at him with so much venom and Jeno wishes they could go back to when he was thirteen and he only had to worry about making sure his voice didn't crack.

"I didn't know how to tell you!" Jeno uses that excuse a lot lately.

Jaemin glares at him.

" _Honestly_. You tell me honestly." Jaemin seethes, throwing Jeno's phone back at him. "It's not that hard— it's not that hard if you love me."

"Jaemin..." Jeno gasps softly, not expecting Jaemin to use their relationship against him. But Jaemin can't handle it anymore, he can't deal with Jeno being so secretive with him, hiding things and ' _not knowing how'_ to tell him.

Jaemin thinks Jeno should trust him.

"I do love you," Jeno insists, cupping both of the younger's cheeks. "I love you so much."

"Then act like it," Jaemin snaps, harshly turning his head out of Jeno's grasp. "Because I love you too." Jeno nods, understandingly, and Jaemin hopes that he _finally_ understands.

"Mark told me to take it," Jeno says, shrugging his shoulders. "He also named Donghyuck in my contacts, I swear I didn't know there were hearts."

"You have a conversation," Jaemin notices, cocking his head towards the powered off phone. "What was it about?"

Jeno knows Jaemin won't like where this is going, but he can't keep it a secret for any longer.

Jaemin won't let him.

"When I left the convenience store we met in, I told them I had someone at home," Jeno admits, refusing to look up at Jaemin, afraid of his reaction. "Donghyuck texted me and asked who that someone was, and I told them I have a boyfriend. I didn't say your name though."

Jaemin doesn't know how to feel about this, doesn't know if he should be mad at Donghyuck for texting Jeno, or mad at Jeno for not telling him. He's a bit mad at the both of them, the both of them have the audacity to do this behind his back. He's mad at Donghyuck but he doesn't even know the other.

Jaemin sighs.

Ever since Jeno's birthday, everything's been a shit show.

"That's all?" Jaemin mumbles, smiling weakly at Jeno, and as much as the latter doesn't want to say it, Jaemin has a look similar to defeat plastered on his face. Jeno thinks his heart breaks a bit when he takes in the other's facial expression.

But he shakes his head.

"Donghyuck wants to meet you. Donghyuck and Mark want to meet you." Jaemin shakes his head softly, pulling his knees up to his chest and resting his cheek against them.

Jaemin doesn't want to meet them. Jaemin doesn't want to meet the people who messed up his picture perfect relationship.

"I don't want to," he whispers, feeling guilt pool in his stomach.

Maybe Jeno wanted to meet them again. Maybe Jeno wanted Jaemin to meet them.

But instead, Jeno says,

"You don't have to."

 

:

 

Back in the warmth and familiarity of Jeju, Donghyuck and Mark felt like something was missing. It was disturbing how they both knew what it was.

"You already got your acceptance letter, right?" Mark asks once day, after noticing his acceptance letter, which was under a pile of papers on his desk. He hears Donghyuck hum from across the room, running his sock clad foot across the wall from where he's laying on Mark's bed.

"Got it two weeks ago," he mumbles, feeling a bit drowsy as he speaks. "Why?"

"Which university is it again?" The elder asks stupidly, since he knows which university and he knows Donghyuck knows which university.

"Seoul... Seoul Academy..." Donghyuck stutters, his face faltering and feet falling when he realizes what school has left his lips. He sighs. "Why?"

"Seoul," Mark whistles, turning around in his swivel chair and staring at Donghyuck with a small smile. "Seoul Donghyuck."

At first, when Mark and Donghyuck talked about Seoul, it just meant new beginnings, and new experiences since they'd be living far away from their parents. Away from parents, and living alone. Now when Mark and Donghyuck talk about Seoul, it has a completely different meaning.

Seoul means Jeno and Jeno's boyfriend.

"Seoul," Donghyuck nods, muttering the name of the city as he looks at Mark upside down.

"Lee Jeno..." Mark nods, staring at some really interesting stain on his ceiling.

"Jeno Lee..."

Curiosity ate away at Mark and Donghyuck ever since they found out about Jeno's boyfriend, someone who remained unnamed. Their whole journey back home to Jeju, they two of them couldn't stop talking about Jeno and his boyfriend. The two of them were dying to know who the mystery boy was, and how close he was to Jeno. Since all three boys were interlaced with their tattoos, they both wondered if Jeno's boyfriend posed as an issue.

"Who the fuck is Na Jaemin then?" Donghyuck mumbles to himself, feeling Mark's gaze switch to him. "I mean," the younger starts, abruptly sitting up and facing his boyfriend. "What are the odds that Jeno's boyfriend is Jaemin? _Na Jaemin_?" Indeed, the odds are low, it would be ridiculous if Na Jaemin was Jeno's boyfriend. Then everything would just be a big web of soulmate tattoos and big hearts.

"When there are three tattoos on my body, I don't think Jaemin being Jeno's boyfriend seems ridiculous." Mark scoffs.

"It's a bit odd though," Donghyuck starts, biting his lips while looking at Mark, who has to will himself to not take Donghyuck biting his lip out of context. "Jeno's tattoo is my name. So is he even fated for his boyfriend?"

It's a good question, and it leaves Mark and Donghyuck confused. The two of them want (or maybe it's just Mark) to get together with all their potential soulmates... But if Jeno was in a relationship with someone who he wasn't fated with... The two boys don't know if they'd want to come between that.


	11. Chapter 11

If Jaemin didn't have to meet Donghyuck and Mark, then he didn't want to. He made that much clear when Jeno tried to bring it up again.

It wasn't necessarily that Jaemin didn't have to meet Mark and Donghyuck, he just really didn't want to see his... _Competition_. If he could call the other two that.

Jeno didn't talk about them much, but Jaemin knew it was about time until Jeno brought up the subject again, and asked Jaemin if he was free to meet Donghyuck and Mark.

If Jaemin knew one thing about the other two, it was that they lived in Jeju. That fact was something that Jeno had picked up from their conversation in the convenience store, for what reason, Jaemin doesn't know. He liked the fact that they lived in Jeju while he lived in Seoul. That just meant that their chances of meeting were close to zero. Of course, vacations and visits were something which could happen, like last week, but bumping into each other was still rare.

But the fact that they lived in Jeju made Jeno uneasy.

Not because he thinks not bumping into his soulmate was an issue which he couldn't live with, it was because Jeno wanted to take Jaemin to Jeju for his birthday. Jeno doesn't know if Jaemin would want to follow though with that plan now. He doesn't want Jaemin to think that now they're only going to Jeju because Mark and Donghyuck live there, he still wants to go solely for the purpose of spending Jaemin's birthday in a nice place, but he doesn't think that thought will easily enter through Jaemin's head.

The current date was July 30th, a mere two weeks before Jaemin's birthday, a mere week before he planned to leave with Jaemin. But he didn't know if Jaemin wanted to follow through with the plan now.

"You still want to go to Jeju, right?" The elder asks nervously, anxiously biting his nails.

Jaemin has told him on multiple occasions not to bite his nails, that it was a bad habit which he needed to stop, but he still did it out of nervousness sometimes, and Jaemin notices every time. Jaemin sighs, taking Jeno's hand away from his mouth, laces their fingers together so that the other wouldn't be tempted to bite his nails again, since he knows that Jeno would rather be holding his hand.

About his question though, of course Jaemin still wanted to go to Jeju with Jeno. The elder had planned it for him anyways, it would seem quite rude if he didn't want to go, especially at the last minute. Since Jaemin was someone who planned things really well, he knew how annoying it was when someone cancelled last minute. Jeno also spent a lot of his money on this trip, saving up for gas and a hotel for a week. Jeju wasn't a cheap place and Jeno wasn't a rich man, so Jaemin appreciates this trip a bit more than he needs to.

"Of course I still want to go Nono. Why wouldn't I?" Jeno breathes out a sigh if relief and Jaemin feels guilty. Did he give off the impression that he didn't want to go? Because honestly there was no other way he'd want to spend his birthday, he'd love to just spend his time alone with Jeno, and he wants the elder to know that. Sure, the last few weeks for them have been quite rough, especially with Jeno meeting Mark and Donghyuck and keeping that secret from Jaemin, but the latter doesn't want Jeno to think that it affected their relationship that much, that Jaemin held a grudge against him or something.

Because he doesn't.

Of course, he was a bit upset at first, thought that that was what heartbreak felt like, but it didn't take him long to realize that he was exaggerating, and that what he was experiencing was nowhere near heartbreak.

"I just thought you were mad at me," Jeno admits in a mumble, and although the phrase makes Jaemin sad, he doesn't let it show much. Jaemin tugs on Jeno's hand, and the latter looks his way. Jaemin smiles softly before leaning in and brushing his lips against his boyfriend's.

"I love you," he whispers, and of course it makes Jeno smile, his sweet smile with his lips and eyes closed. Sometimes, or most of the time, Jeno was too cute for Jaemin to handle.

"I love you too Nana."

But Jaemin already knows that.

 

:

 

"Hyuck, all I want is a quiet time," Mark sighs, trying to keep Donghyuck silent by putting his hand over his mouth. The other boy has been talking his ear off about how he wanted to do something special for Mark since he had done something exceptionally amazing for him, but Mark keeps denying the idea. Not that he doesn't like the sound of it, the thought of going somewhere else with Donghyuck alone again made him giddy and sent a frenzy off in his stomach, but his mind was kind of preoccupied by some other thoughts.

Mark was finally going to university.

He is born a year before Donghyuck, should have graduated high school last year while Donghyuck was a junior, but he took a fifth year. The idea of a fifth year didn't really appeal to him at first, but when he realized that he could take a bunch of university courses that year for free, he loaded both semester with STEM courses. The sound of graduating and starting university with Donghyuck didn't sound too bad either, but he wouldn't dare tell his boyfriend that that was something he took into consideration when signing up for a fifth year.

"Okay first of all," Donghyuck starts when Mark finally lifts his band from his mouth. "You're with me, quiet time is never happening Mark Lee. Second of all, why won't you let me have fun with this?"

Donghyuck is pouting and Mark would've been teasing him about it, but he knows Donghyuck isn't in the mood for that. All he's in the mood for is getting to ' _go_ ' of approval of taking Mark somewhere.

"Take me to the beach," the elder mumbles, tightening his hold on the boy's body which was on top of his.

Mark loves the beach, Donghyuck discovered this four weeks into dating him. He learned that the elder actually enjoyed bathing in the sun for hours with the risk of getting a sunburn and skin cancer, while getting sand stuck between his toes and, most of time, a bad tan. Donghyuck couldn't understand that logic, but Mark if liked going to the beach, then damn, suddenly Donghyuck did too.

"I'll take you to a beach," Donghyuck nods, knowing that approval of going to a beach was the best he was going to get, considering how Mark wasn't a big fan of being on the receiving end of large gestures. Which was ridiculous, considering how much good he does for the people around him.

"Thanks," Mark says with gratitude, taking to heart how much Donghyuck was thinking about this. Something catches his attention though.

Donghyuck's phone.

Normally, Donghyuck's device didn't hold anything interesting for Mark to read through or get excited over, but this time was different.

Donghyuck's screen turned on, meaning a notification was new.

He sees that it's a text.

"Baby, pass me your phone," Mark mumbles, patting the pocket on Donghyuck's ass, seeing as his phone was there. He can feel the blush of the younger's face on the skin of his neck before Donghyuck manages to get a hand to his pocket and slips his phone out, handing it to Mark.

Using his thumbprint to unlock the device, since Donghyuck insisted that the both of them needed to have each other's thumbprints on their phones for ' _security_ ' reasons, Mark immediately goes to the younger's messaging app. For sure, there's one unread message, and the person it's from surprises Mark.

"You text Lee Jeno?" He asks, eyebrows almost disappearing into his hairline because of how surprised he was.

But Donghyuck shakes his head.

"Haven't spoken to him since like... A month ago?" He mumbles, eyebrows furrowing as he tries to decipher exactly how long it's been. But Mark can't care for that, not when he's reading the text Jeno sent Donghyuck with wide eyes, and he rapidly slaps Donghyuck's arm and turns the phone screen towards him when he starts to whine in pain.

He shuts up immediately once he reads the message.

"What am I supposed to reply to that?" He shrieks incredulously, Mark shrugs, also completely speechless. Donghyuck groans. "Say yes," he finally mumbles, going back to hiding his face in Mark's neck. "See what he wants."

So Mark replies with a quick ' _yeah_ ', but the reason towards why Jeno would ask that still burns, fresh in his mind.

 _[AUG01]_  

_**jeno lee:** hey r u and mark free next weekend?_


	12. Chapter 12

"Have a safe drive!" Jaemin's mom wishes, waving from where she is standing in the lawn, just like a stereotypical movie scene.

Jeno was sitting in the driver's seat of the car, while Jaemin accompanied him in the passenger's seat, for obvious reasons.

"Bye Mr. and Ms. Na!" Jaemin simply waves goodbye to them, before Jeno is rolling up the windows, turning on the air conditioning and smiling happily as he starts their route to Jeju.

"Excited?" Jeno asks, taking one hand off of the steering wheel to put it on Jaemin's thigh. The latter blushes furiously, but tries to keep his cool.

"Yeah," he replies, also smiling quite happily. Jaemin loves spending time with Jeno, so he is ecstatic about this whole arrangement. The entire ride there, Jeno stops for gas once and they stop for food twice, since Jaemin stupidly forgot half of the snacks at home. Jeno doesn't mind, he'll gladly buy Jaemin everything he wants.

By the time they make it to the hotel Jeno has booked, it was only 2:00pm, and the Jeju heat was killer. It was only a few degrees hotter than Seoul, but they were significant.

"I have an itinerary prepared~" Jeno sings, walking up to Jaemin with a piece of paper decorated in Jeno's pretty writing. "Look!" Indeed, Jeno's itinerary was packed, each row representing each day of the week. For sure, the days were filled with visits to memorable places, like statues and temples, beaches, and shopping malls.

Jeno was considerate, Jaemin settles on, switching his gaze from the piece of paper to Jeno's almost disappearing eyes. He wraps his arms around the elder's neck, pulling him down until Jeno was laying on top of him. "Can we stay like this?" Jaemin asks, pushing his head into Jeno's neck. "I like being with you."

Jeno laughs, it's more of a chuckle actually, but either way it sounds melodic to Jaemin's ears. Jeno rolls over so that he's laying flat on his back with Jaemin on top of him.

"I like being with you too," he says, cheekily smooshing his lips against the younger's cheek with a sickening smack. Jaemin giggles, Jeno's heart feels warm, before he gets up.

"Fifteen minutes," he calls, heading into the showers. Jeno continues to stare at the closed bathroom door for some minutes like a creep before sighing and sitting up, contemplating what he should wear. He sifts through his suitcase, and once he finds a suitable pair of jeans and a nice blue dress shirt, he spreads them out on the bed and then finds his phone.

He doesn't know what comes over him, he'd be lying if he tells you that he regrets it, but he immediately opens his text conversation with Donghyuck.

Jeno bites his lip, he knows that Jaemin said he didn't want to meet Donghyuck and Mark, it was already kind of bad enough that they're in Jeju, but Jeno... Jeno doesn't know why, but he can't let this opportunity pass.

_[AUG01]_

_**jeno lee:** hey r u and mark free next weekend? _

Jeno thinks the worst part is that he doesn't regret a thing.

 

:

 

"Happy birthday!" Donghyuck squeals, throwing some shredded confetti which he had in his fists in the air. Mark chuckles airily as he watches the multicoloured shreds of paper fall around him, and he's positive that there's some in his head. Before he can even bring his eyes back up to look at Donghyuck, the latter is already looping his arms around Mark, kissing his face as he repeatedly wishes him happy birthday.

"Happy happy happy happy birthday," he chants, smiling wider than he did when it was his own birthday. Sighing out contently, Mark wraps his arms around Donghyuck's waist and squeezes the younger flush against himself, burying his head in Donghyuck's neck.

"Thank you Hyuckie," he murmurs, the sound sending a pleasant vibration down Donghyuck's spine. "Now let's take a nap." Mark didn't expect Donghyuck to violently push the other away, but that's exactly what he did. "Okay, what?" Mark whines, obviously not up for Donghyuck pulling something out on his phone.

Donghyuck ignores him, a complete one eighty from a few seconds ago, while biting his lip. Mark can't see what was Donghyuck, so he settles on peering over Donghyuck's shoulder, keeping his arms around the younger. Mark got bored of watching what Donghyuck was going very easily, so he results in pressing kisses below his ear, his neck and his cheeks, humming lowly in his throat as he closed his eyes.

"This is Jeno," Donghyuck suddenly says, in a tone which implies that he's speaking directly to Mark. "Mhm," he simply hums, not paying mind to whatever Donghyuck was saying. Donghyuck whines, shrugging his shoulders to get Mark's attention. "Look at him~" So Mark sighs and reluctantly brings his face out of the younger's neck, staring a selfie of Jeno smiling, with another smiling boy next to him.

"Who's that?" He asks, not really interested.

"See, that's what I don't know," Donghyuck huffs, opening their text conversation. "So I'm gonna ask him." Donghyuck sends the picture back in their text conversation, asking the question of who the boy beside Jeno was.

Mark blearily opens his eyes to see what was going on for a brief moment, but then something catches his eye in the photo. He snakes an arm up to Donghyuck's phone screen, tapping on the photo to enlarge it. He squints his eyes, realization clicking in his brain as his eyes widen significantly.

"Babe..." Mark starts, turning the younger around in his arms. "Isn't that Taeil and Youngho hyung's restaurant?" Taken aback by Mark's question, Donghyuck analyzes the photo again, and much to his surprise, the background of the selfie Jeno took is, in fact, Taeil and Youngho's restaurant.

"It is..." He gasps. "Are they in Jeju?"


	13. Chapter 13

"Good morning beautiful. Happy birthday."

When Jaemin opens his eyes, an angel is staring back at him. 

It almost takes his breath away. The only reason it doesn't is because he's used to seeing Jeno all up in his face first thing when he wakes up. Perks of having sleepovers every week.

Jeno doesn't think he's ever gonna get used to Jaemin blushing when he wakes up, ever get used to the younger's rosy cheeks and fleeting eyes. 

Jaemin was beautiful. 

Jeno wants to remind him of that every chance he gets. 

"G'morning handsome," Jaemin mumbles, moving closer to the warmth of Jeno's body, throwing a leg over the elder's waist. 

Jeno thinks it's grossly domestic how sweet their words are, before moving his hand to play with the short hairs on Jaemin's neck. The latter all but purrs, and Jeno is so in love that he almost coos out loud. Almost because Jaemin nuzzles his head into his chest first, before smiling tiredly up at him. 

He purses his lips, and Jeno knows what he wants. He thinks Jaemin can see the way his whole demeanour softens, because his own eyes sparkle before Jeno leans in and softly kisses him. 

Jaemin savours every second of it, ignoring their morning breath and just melting into the elder's hold. 

Jaemin loves how warm and protected Jeno made him feel, how fuzzy and loved Jeno made him feel. 

"Today, I have sight seeing and dinner planned," Jeno says when he pulls away and puts some distance between them. 

Jaemin hums, burying himself in Jeno's neck. 

"Today, I have making out planned," the younger announced, voice coming out muffled from where his mouth was pressed against Jeno's collarbones. The elder chuckles, and Jaemin feels the rumbling pass through his body from how close they were pressed together. "I mean it," he adds after hearing Jeno laugh, pulling his head out and making sure Jeno could see his face before pouting. "I could kiss you all day." 

"I know," the ravenette sighs, stroking a thumb along Jaemin's cheekbones. "You've done that before."

Jaemin giggles, guilty he is of Jeno's statement, before leaning up again and locking their lips. 

Jeno's plans could wait, it's probably early in the morning anyways. 

"Hm... Nana," Jeno mumbles when he pulls away for the second time, waiting for Jaemin's eyes to open before he continued to speak. "Gotta get up and brush your teeth."

At first, Jaemin thought it had something to do with his morning breath, but then Jeno continues to speak. 

"I have a bunch places I wanna take you."

Since Jeno was a good boyfriend, Jaemin complies, but not before pecking the elder's lips once more. Reluctantly, he peels the sheets off of them, using all of his strength to sit himself up. After stretching his arms over his head and yawning twice, Jaemin makes his way to the bathroom. 

In the meantime, Jeno decides to make the younger some tea, knowing that Jaemin always enjoyed a cup first thing in the morning.

He quickly found a kettle which the hotel provided them in their room, taking out a water bottle from their bag and pouring half of it in the kettle. He sifts through Jaemin's backpack for a while before finding a plastic baggy with a bunch of teabags in it. He smiles softly to himself before retrieving a paper cup (which was also provided), and waiting for the water to boil. 

When the water is finally boiled and Jeno pours the steaming liquid into the cup, he hears the bathroom door open. 

"Honey?"

"Yeah?" Jaemin answers. 

Jeno has to stifle himself from laughing out loud.

"No— I was asking if you brought the honey."

Jaemin is glad that Jeno isn't looking his way, glad that he can't see the way his cheeks and ears are flared pink. 

"In my suitcase," he mutters as a response to Jeno's original question, fetching it himself. 

He glares at Jeno when he sees the elder smirk and about to say something. 

"Here's you tea," the elder settles on muttering, heading Jaemin the hot cup. 

Jaemin huffs.

"Thank you." But he still has manners. 

While he leaves Jaemin with his tea, he heads to the bathroom to freshen himself up. 

Once he's sure the door is locked and that Jaemin isn't near, he unlocks his phone and pulls up his conversation with Donghyuck. 

[AUG13]  
it's my boyfriend's birthday  
come to lilac @ 8:30 for dinner?

Jeno sighs shakily before locking his phone again. 

He knows he's doing the right thing. 

Even if Jaemin doesn't want to meet Donghyuck and Mark, Jeno knows that he has to. Especially on his birthday, when he's gonna get his tattoo. Or tattoos. 

Jeno hopes Jaemin understands that this is the easiest way to resolve all of their problems. 

If Donghyuck and Mark could see who's name appears on Jaemin's skin, then they could talk about arrangements. 

This isn't something they could ignore. Soulmates are their future. 

Jeno could only hope Jaemin wouldn't hate him after this. 

When the elder exists the bathroom feeling refreshed, Jaemin is done his tea and is changed into a pair of light pink shorts and a white t-shirt. 

"Cute," Jeno mutters, smiling to himself when the younger's cheeks take on a similar colour to his shorts. 

Jaemin heads back into the bathroom, Jeno assumes it's to put on some makeup. Jaemin never goes heavy on makeup, but he likes to cover up his acne scars and put on lip tint. 

Jeno doesn't mind it. Loves Jaemin either way.

He himself changes into sky blue shorts and a white and black stripped t-shirt. 

He wrings his fingers through his hair to attempt to clean it up a bit. It only messes it up more. 

"I'm ready," Jaemin announces when he steps out of the bathroom, clapping his hands excitedly. "Where to, babe?"

Jeno perks up at the sound of Jaemin's voice before answering. 

"Today, I'm taking you on a ferry ride to the pier," he announces, smiling happily when Jaemin's eyes light up. 

Jaemin really likes the water. 

"You're the best," he sighs, sweetly pecking the elder's cheek before taking his hand. "Let's go!" 

And when Jaemin all but shamelessly asks Jeno to reenact the Titanic scene with him at the front of the ferry, Jeno knows he planned this day out well. 

 

"You want some pineapple?" Mark asks. 

Donghyuck was gonna answer, but then his phone vibrates. 

[AUG13]  
jeno lee: it's my boyfriend's birthday  
come to lilac @ 8:30 for dinner?

"No!" Donghyuck immediately shouts, throwing his phone across the room, thankful that it lands on Mark's bed. 

The elder quirks up a curious eyebrow. 

"You don't want any pineapples...?"

Donghyuck huffs, violently taking Mark's fork out of the elder's hand, all but stabbing a cube of pineapple and aggressively munching on it. 

"I'm confused," Mark sighs, helplessly looking up at Donghyuck. "You either do or don't want pineapples." 

Donghyuck purses his lips, glaring at Mark, because he needs to get rid of his frustration somehow.

"Do you wanna go to Lilac for dinner?" The younger simply growls, earning a really confused look from Mark. 

Okay, now you see, Mark doesn't really know how to answer that question. It seemed as if no matter what his answer was, Donghyuck would be mad. And Mark didn't really want that. 

"D-Do you wanna g-go to Lilac for dinner?" Mark stutters, trying to understand that if Donghyuck wanted to go, then he'd surely take the younger there. 

Donghyuck growls and Mark thinks his life flashes before his eyes. 

"Answer the fucking question hyung."

Gulping, Mark nods.

"We could go to L-Lilac for dinner," he says, cringing at the way his voice cracks. 

"Look handsome," Donghyuck spits, aggressively shifting through Mark's one drawer full of Donghyuck's clothes. "Like a fucking prince."

Mark doesn't know why he has to be so dressed up, the other times they went to Lilac, Taeil and Youngho's restaurant, they've always dressed casually and leeched off of whatever free food they could get. 

"May I ask why?" The elder timidly asks. 

Donghyuck sighs, throwing his head towards his phone. 

"Look at what Lee Jeno asked."

So Mark complies, gets up and heads to Donghyuck's phone, unlocking the device and goes to his chat with Jeno. 

Once he reads the messages, he understands why Donghyuck was as angered as he was, even if Mark himself was cool with it. 

"You need to chill," is what Mark says after putting the younger's phone away. "He just wants us to meet his boyfriend."

Donghyuck throws Mark the nth glare in fifteen minutes, taking out a pink t-shirt from the drawer. 

"Why? Why do we need to do that?" 

It's not that Donghyuck has an issue with talking about all three, Jeno, himself and Mark's, relationship, he just wants to understand why they have to meet his boyfriend. 

"He said it's his birthday," Mark shrugs. "Maybe he's getting his tattoo."

The statement makes Donghyuck freeze, biting his lip while looking at Mark. 

"Why should we get to see that happen?" He says quietly, not knowing if Jeno inviting them to watch his boyfriend's tattoo form was something endearing or not. 

"I think he caught on," Mark sighs, throwing Donghyuck his pink flannel, thinking it would compliment the pink shirt and blue jeans the younger had picked out. "I think he knows how messy this is too."

Donghyuck hums, albeit begrudgingly, defeatedly plopping down onto the bed. 

He purses his lips before looking at Mark. 

"Jeno is handsome. And hot. He's sexy."

Mark is baffled, doesn't know why Donghyuck would just start complimenting Jeno when he's been annoyed by the mere thought of him a while ago. 

Not that there's an issue with Donghyuck taking a liking to Jeno, Mark would be lying if he told you that he didn't think Jeno was kind of sweet as well. 

But was Donghyuck trying to make him jealous? 

"I know," he simply answers, watching how Donghyuck furrows his eyebrows. 

"Does he think I'm hot...?" The younger mumbles, more to himself than to Mark. "He better," he then grumbles. 

"You want him to?" Mark asks, a bit more sassily than he intended. 

Donghyuck shoots him a surprised look with his eyebrows raised. 

"Why?" He asks slyly, smirking lightly at the elder. "Jealous?"

Mark blushes, the tips of his ears turning red and his neck taking on a pink colour along with the apples of his cheeks. 

"Never," he retaliates lowly, going to his own drawers to find some clothes to wear. "Curious is all."

"Curious my ass," Donghyuck snorts, and Mark quickly whips his head around to glare at Donghyuck, but doesn't elaborate.

Instead, he thinks about Jeno's boyfriend. 

He and Donghyuck wouldn't be invited for no reason. Obviously, Jeno's boyfriend is going to get get his soulmate tattoo today, there would be no other reason why they would be asked to come.

The one thing that was bugging him however was if his boyfriend knew about this. 

Mark and Donghyuck have never met Jeno's boyfriend, they only know what he looks like. 

They don't know his name, or if he even knows about Jeno not having his name as a tattoo. Or that other people have Jeno's name as their tattoo.

Does he even know that his own name is tattooed on someone who isn't his boyfriend?

These were all questions Mark desperately wanted to ask Jeno, or to at least clarify. 

But he'd just have to wait and see how the dinner tonight went.


	14. Chapter 14

"Play nice."

"I'm not a dog."

"But you can be a bitch."

"Shut the entire fuck up."

Mark sighs, stops walking and looks at Donghyuck expectantly. 

The younger all but scoffs. 

"Stop looking at me like that," Donghyuck hisses, snapping his eyes away from his boyfriend. 

Mark sighs. 

"Babe," he calls, letting his strict demeanour fall and walks closer to Donghyuck. "You're tense." He puts his hands on the younger's shoulders, not surprised when they tense. 

Donghyuck grumbles low in his throat, but doesn't make a move to get away. Instead, he looks at the ground. 

"Donghyuck, what's wrong?" Mark asks, suddenly starting to get slightly concerned. 

Donghyuck doesn't look up for a few seconds, but when he does he's cupping Mark's cheeks and getting onto his tippy toes to kiss the elder male. 

Mark is taken aback, Donghyuck isn't really a fan of PDA, unless it was at school. 

When the younger pulls away, his nose is still touching Mark's, while he's looking at the elder with desperate eyes. 

"You love me," Donghyuck says, and in the back of his head, he knows how selfish he's gonna sound, and how unfair this was. "Don't forget that."

Mark is baffled, completely speechless, because although he has seen Donghyuck become possessive before, this was a whole new level. 

Before Mark can open his mouth to say anything though, Donghyuck grabs his hand and leads them to the restaurant, the both of them immediately going to sit at the bar, where Youngho was always standing behind the counter. The two of them have time to kill anyways, they're half an hour early. 

"What're you two doing here today? Looking all fancy like that," Youngho asks, flicking the collar of Mark's navy blue button up.

"Lee Jeno," Donghyuck grumbles, sadly plopping down onto the bar seat. 

Youngho and Taeil know all about Mark and Donghyuck's soulmate struggles, the four of them normally talk about it over free milkshakes. 

"He's in Jeju?"

Mark hums, affirmative, before taking a seat himself and explaining.

"It's his boyfriend's birthday today and they're coming here for dinner." He says. "His boyfriend either is or isn't the third name on my body."

Now it's Youngho's turn to hum, understanding. He thinks the kids have it tough, but he knows they're sensible enough to work through it on their own. 

"Good luck I guess," he shrugs, proceeding to look at Donghyuck. "Play nice."

Donghyuck wants to cuss at his hyung, but then he decides against it and bites his tongue to keep himself under control.

Youngho turns to tend to some customers who were actually at the bar to drink, leaving Mark and Donghyuck to have small talk while waiting for Jeno and Jaemin to arrive. 

Meanwhile, Jeno and Jaemin were back at their hotel room, the former waiting for the latter to finish getting dressed for their dinner. Jeno told him to go fancy. He wants Donghyuck and Mark to have a good first impression. 

When Jeno feels the butterflies in his stomach fluttering bit too violently, he's reminded of how bad this could go.

He knows that Mark would no doubt be the nicest about it, would have no problem trying to get to know Jaemin. Donghyuck would be a piece of work, Jeno knows that he'd be a bit reluctant at first. However, he knows that Jaemin was the real... Well he doesn't want to say issue, but Jaemin would be the most stubborn. 

He decides that he'll ease Jaemin into the fact that they were gonna meet Donghyuck and Mark while they were on their way to Lilac, since it was only a ten minute walk. 

Plus, Jaemin wouldn't really turn back at that point. 

When the younger exists the bathroom, looking so cute in his white button up tucked into his black slacks, Jeno feels a smile immediately taking over his lips. Jaemin has his makeup on, along with piercings in his ears.

"You look so pretty Nana," Jeno compliments, and the mentioned male blushes a tad before pocketing his cellphone.

"Thanks Nono. You look handsome."

After complimenting each other and gathering all their things, Jeno holds the hotel door open for Jaemin, and the younger laughs before heading out. 

Once they're out and about, with Jeno leading them of course, Jaemin laces their fingers together, swinging them back and forth.

"Thanks for today Jeno hyung. You're the best," he admits, a seemingly permanent smile on his lips.

The smile Jeno gives back is halfhearted.

"Don't thank me yet." He says quietly. But Jaemin hears, and furrows his brows in confusion. 

"Why?"

Jeno sighs shakily, looking anywhere but his boyfriend. It was kind of ridiculous how nervous he was to be honest, he just didn't want to get his ass whooped. 

"IaskedMarkandDonghyucktocomehavedinnerwithus." 

Jaemin knew Jeno well, which is why he understood what Jeno said the first time. 

He opens and closes his mouth, having stopped walking, while trying to think about something to say. 

He wasn't particularly... Mad, but he was, once again, frustrated that Jeno hadn't told him.

"Honesty," Jaemin finally settles on sighing. Jeno looks at him sadly, and Jaemin then feels guilty. 

In the back of his mind, he knows Jeno didn't tell him because he'd most probably flip and reject the idea again and again. But since Jeno told him now, he doesn't really have a choice. 

Jeno took him out today, made sure he had the best day of his life, and is now taking him to dinner. 

Jaemin wouldn't let Mark and Donghyuck ruin everything Jeno has done for him. 

He kind of thinks it's like blackmail, but he understands why Jeno did it, which is why he's not as mad. 

It's just... Honesty. 

"Jaemin I'm sorry. But this is what's best," Jeno pleads, and Jaemin knows that. Deep down, he knows that. He just doesn't want to admit it. 

"I know," he says quietly, putting a smile back on his face and urging Jeno to walk. "It's just... You love me. Don't forget that." 

When they both reach the restaurant, Jaemin has to take a deep calming breath and has to remind himself to act rationally. 

He'll just treat them like new friends. 

When they walk into the restaurant, it's cooler than it is outside.

"I see your boys," Youngho says, nudging his head in Jeno's direction. 

When the two others turn around simultaneously to find Jeno, they see Taeil serving them and leading them to a table. For four. 

"Wish me luck," Donghyuck sighs, jumping off of his barstool. 

"Lord knows he'll need it," Mark adds quietly.


	15. Chapter 15

"Hi! My name's Mark!" Said boy greets himself enthusiastically, sticking a hand out in front of the unknown boy, the one sitting next to Jeno. 

Mark can see Jeno's boyfriend hesitantly take his hand in his own and shake. He can also feel Donghyuck slap his thigh from underneath the table, but he won't think about that now. 

"My name's Jaemin..." The now known and named boy trails off, and Mark can feel Donghyuck tense beside him. But once again, he won't think about that for now. 

"Na Jaemin?" Donghyuck asks, a bit too harshly if Mark was being honest.

"Yeah," Jaemin replies, and Jeno swore he saw him give Donghyuck a light glare. 

"Order what you want," Jeno decides on saying in order to break the ice. "It's on me."

"Don't worry about it," Donghyuck mutters. "Lilac is my hyung's place." 

Jeno doesn't comment on that, doesn't know how to, and decides to just scan the menu while the other three follow his actions not too long after. 

After reciting their orders to Taeil, who Donghyuck and Mark introduce the other boys to, Mark abruptly starts to speak.

"Ah! Happy birthday Jaemin!" 

Jaemin seems bashful at that, seeming to forget that Jeno said he informed the other two of his birthday. 

"Yeah," Donghyuck adds lamely, ignoring how Mark lightly steps on his foot. He's not doing anything wrong anyways. 

"Thanks," Jaemin mumbles, not seeing the way Jeno smiles lightly at him.

It's obvious Jaemin is making an effort, even though he didn't want them to be here. Jeno appreciates it a lot, he truly does. So he puts a hand on Jaemin's thigh under the table, keeps it there as reassurance for the younger, so that Jaemin knows he's there. 

Mark notices, having done the exact same thing to Donghyuck so many times before. 

It makes him smile the tiniest bit, his mind making the impulsive conclusion that Jaemin and Jeno were just as in love as he and Donghyuck were. He wasn't wrong though. 

It's awkward, while the four of them wait for their food, it consists mainly of Jeno and Mark making small conversation, the two of them immediately deciding that they get along and mesh well together. 

Meanwhile, Jaemin was attentively listening to their conversation while Donghyuck was blatantly staring at him. Jaemin pretends to ignore it, when in reality, he can feel Donghyuck's gaze burn through his skull. 

"So, you guys are from Seoul, right?" Mark asks, nudging Donghyuck under the table with his leg, urging the younger to be apart of the conversation. 

Jeno hums while Jaemin opens his mouth to speak.

"We live in the city, near Seoul university," he briefly explains, eyes fleeting between the two boys from Jeju. "You guys are in your senior year too, right?"

Donghyuck nods. 

"Mark took a fifth year of high school so he could take uni courses, but he's starting university this year." Said boy nods, as if to confirm what Donghyuck had said. 

Donghyuck mentally prepares himself for what he's going to say next. 

"We're going to Seoul university."

Jeno's eyebrows skyrocket up while he makes a surprised sound, but Jaemin's mind is still registering what Donghyuck had said. 

"Same," Jeno happily smiles. "We'll see where that goes."

——

Youngho thinks he's high and mighty. 

Youngho thinks that just because he owns the place his little brother, and what, three dates are eating in, he could spike their drinks with some (a lot) of alcohol. 

It's moments like these where Taeil wants to break up with Youngho.

"What are you doing?!" Taeil shrieks when he catches the younger owner pour a generous amount of Rosé into the strawberry milkshake he vividly remembers Jaemin ordering. 

"They need to relax," Youngho scoffs, looking up at Taeil. "Seriously, it's painful to watch them."

"Are you out of your mind?" Taeil hisses. "Donghyuck and Mark have never so much as picked up a bottle of beer, I'm pretty sure those other two haven't either." 

Youngho rolls his eyes while keeping the fact that Taeil was a buzzkill inside his mind. 

"They're all legal." He reasons, moving onto a bottle of cider for Mark's apple juice. "I'll drive 'em home if I have to, I just need to see progress here tonight."

Taeil thinks that Youngho needs to stop living off of the youth of his younger brother, needs to move the fuck on with life and preferably pay more attention to not getting kids intoxicated. 

"It's on you Seo Youngho, you're damn delusional if you think I'm gonna take part in this."

Just like that, Taeil left Youngho to finish adding alcohol to the quartet's drinks, casually sliding the tray over to a glaring Taeil, who then hands the drinks over as if they weren't spiked.

Youngho thinks that Taeil should loosen up a bit, but if he were to tell the elder that, he knows for a fact that he'd be sleeping on the couch tonight. 

"See?" Youngho asks when Taeil walks past the bar while glaring at him. "Now I'll have some entertainment for the rest of the night."

"You're supposed to be working."

Two strawberry milkshakes, four apple juices, three orange juices and three coconut waters later, the quartet was tipsy enough to have an easy flowing conversation with each other. 

Youngho decided to end it there, it was enough alcohol in their system, especially for the first time.

"If you're so smart," Taeil starts, gritting his teeth while crossing his arms over his chest. "How are we going to get them to leave before we close up?"

Youngho perks up at that, already having thought about it.

"We don't. It's the kid's birthday—" Taeil cuts him off before he can continue. 

"You really, really need to stop butting into the youth," he deadpans, but the younger dismissively shakes his hands.

"No, anyways as I was saying, it's the kid's birthday so they're gonna see who's his soulmate. It could be either one of the other three or not."

Taeil sighs, rubbing his temples.

If he and Youngho had to keep Lilac open for until Jaemin got his soulmate tattoo, then they'd have to stay an extra two hours. 

"Youngho," Taeil sighs in a distressed manner. "I get tired."

"Stop thinking of excuses. Remember when I got my tattoo?" 

At the mention of Youngho's tattoo, Taeil visibly softens. 

When Youngho got his tattoo, he got the name 'Jung Jaehyun', someone who neither Youngho nor Taeil have ever heard of. 

To say Taeil was heartbroken when he found out that Youngho had a different name tattooed onto his rib cage, a name which wasn't his, he was left to feel alone when his lower back had 'Seo Youngho' tattooed there. 

But you know, here they are now, eight years into their relationship and still living as happily as ever. 

Taeil and Youngho were perfect examples of getting the wrong tattoo. For that Jung Jaehyun person had never searched for Youngho, he must've gotten someone else as their tattoo, or he just didn't feel a connection strong enough to search for Youngho. 

Not that Youngho is complaining. He's more than happy with Taeil, Moon Taeil, who is the love of his life, the second half of his heart, and the co-owner of the restaurant. 

"Stop guilt tripping me into this," Taeil whines, hitting Youngho's chest after each word. The taller simply raises up an eyebrow. Taeil caves. "Fine! But you're taking them home!"

——

At 11:55pm, Jaemin was good enough as dead, leaning his head onto Jeno's shoulder, while Donghyuck and Mark were groggily trying to stay awake. They were teenage boys, and they have stayed up later than midnight, but it's the alcohol in their systems which is slowing them down and making them tired. 

"You're gonna get your tattoo," Donghyuck mumbles directly to Jaemin, watching how the, as he learned, younger boy peels his eyelids open. 

"Hmm... My ankle is burning," he mutters, letting the other three know that his ankle was probably where his tattoo would appear. 

More minutes go by in silence, before Donghyuck once again decides to open his mouth.

"Minhyung hyung loves me," he says, rather harshly to the boys in front of him. Mark was too tipsy to find a way to get Donghyuck to behave. "So you better not get his name."

Jaemin manages to glare through his drowsiness. 

"Jeno hyung loves me, don't think I can't see his name on your neck," he spits back. "And I know he's on your thigh," he says to Mark this time, not as harsh. 

Jeno blinks his eyes open, deciding to keep mum about what was happening, instead he peers under the table. 

His eyes widen when he sees a blue name on Jaemin's ankle.

"N-Nana," he stutters, eyes never leaving the boy's ankle. 

Realization hits Jaemin's foggy mind, and he brings his right ankle out from under the table so that the other two could see as well.

Lee Jeno.

Donghyuck smirks.

"Now stay away from me and Mark hyung. You already have your boyfriend."

"Donghyuck," Mark gasps, appalled because Donghyuck was behaving so well, but he just had to do this last minute, didn't he? 

Jeno is just speechless, still trying to process that now three people have him as their soulmate. He's only glad that Jaemin does though. 

From where he was listening to all this happen, Youngho decides that it's time he dumps Donghyuck and Mark home.

Not before telling a baffled Taeil to take Jeno and Jaemin to their hotel, in which he yells at Youngho for involving him. 

__________

imma put a huge ass time skip in the next chapter   
or maybe it's not that huge and i'm exaggerating idk


	16. Chapter 16

"I can't believe we're already moving in," Jaemin sighs, taping shut his final box. 

"I can't believe you graduated high school." And then Jaemin proceeds to chuck the roll of tape at Jeno's face. "Okay that was uncalled for." 

"You're annoying," Jaemin spits, taking his final box in his arms to Jeno's car. "I don't know why I'm dating you."

Jeno has the audacity to frown. 

"Who would you have dated if it weren't me, hm?" Jeno questions patronizingly, sticking his tongue out at Jaemin solely because he knows the younger can see him. Call him pathetic, but everyone says that was Jeno's middle name. 

Jaemin puts the final box into the trunk of Jeno's car before turning to the elder and deadpanning the next few words he says. 

"The hot as fuck art student from grade nine."

Whenever Jaemin mentions the art student from grade nine, Jeno feels his blood boil. 

There had been a point in Jeno's life where he was particularity possessive over Jaemin and it didn't help that that was also the exact time a new student who was obsessed with painting showed up. Also didn't help that he was hot as fuck. 

"I would've killed you," Jeno flat out says, growling before making his way to the driver's seat. 

"Chill," Jaemin scoffs. "I don't even remember his name." 

Jeno sneers. 

"Good." 

The drive to Seoul university was only about twenty five minutes from Jaemin's house, but the two boys, unlike are usual, didn't have anything to talk about. 

Besides the elephant in the room, but it was the elephant for a reason. Neither Jeno nor Jaemin were going to bring that topic up. 

"After unpacking do you want to grab dinner?" Jaemin asks instead, reaching over to the centre consol and holding Jeno's hand. "We're gonna be busy once classes start."

Granted, classes don't start for another two weeks, but Jeno understands where Jaemin is coming from, so he agrees. 

From how Jaemin starts to play with Jeno's fingers, the latter knows he in thought. 

Jaemin always does that when he's thinking too much, always does miscellaneous things with his hands. 

"What're you thinking about?" Jeno asks after a few fingers of Jaemin playing with his hand. 

The younger was tracing the lines on Jeno's palm while answering.

"Where to go for dinner," he replied easily. 

Jeno knows it isn't the truth, but he won't dwell on it for now. 

Meanwhile, things were a bit more interesting with Mark and Donghyuck. 

"Stop—" Donghyuck pants, navigating his hands to Mark's chest. "Mm... M-Mark," he gasps, turning his head to the side. 

But that doesn't stop his elder boyfriend, of course it wouldn't, because Mark just moved is kisses from Donghyuck's lips to his jaw, which, unfortunately for Donghyuck, is a weak spot.

"Hyung we're gonna be late," the younger says breathily, fingers tightening on the fabric of Mark's t-shirt. "S-Sign in closed at four."

Grumbling because he realizes Donghyuck is right, he reluctantly moves away from the younger's jaw. He pressed three more pecks into his lips before letting him go. 

"Let's start. It's another half hour from where we were in Seoul," Mark sighs, snaking a hand down the the younger hand. He locks them together and then drags Donghyuck to the door. 

Complying all the way until they were strapped into the taxi which would take them to the train station, Donghyuck decided to lay his head on the elder's shoulder and close his eyes. 

Bad idea though, considering how Mark has to wake him when they arrive at the station. 

Which mean that Donghyuck would be cranky. And a cranky Donghyuck was a irritable Donghyuck, not that Mark would ever tell him that, no, never. He'd rather keep his limbs attached to his body, you know?

However, once they were seated inside the train, Mark let's the boy lay on his shoulder again. 

"Tired, are you?" He asks, even if the answer is painfully obvious. 

Donghyuck hums affirmatively, curling his arms around Mark's own arm. 

"After unpacking," he starts lowly in a whisper. "Let's grab something to eat."

"Okay," Mark agrees, smiling as he cards a hand through Donghyuck's hand. "Sleep well love." He whispers, kissing Donghyuck's forehead before zoning out the window himself. 

——

"Are you shitting me?" Jaemin scoffs, dropping his last box onto the ground when he sees the Mark Lee standing in front of what was supposed to be his dorm room. 

The elder turns around confused, recognizing the semi familiar voice. His eyes widen once they land on Jaemin. 

His mouth is also agape, and it seems like he's trying to formulate words, but all he does is continue to open and close his mouth. 

"You know what, it's fine actually," Jaemin suddenly says, cutting through the awkward silence, walking past Mark with his box in his arms again. "Couldn't care less to be honest."

Mark doesn't know if his throat is patched because he didn't drink water since they left for the taxi, or because, did Jaemin get prettier?

——

"Nope, nope, nope, I'm not having this," Donghyuck groans, turning around on his heel the instant he sees Lee Jeno in what was supposed to be his dorm room. "Absolutely not."

"Hello to you too Donghyuck," Jeno sighs, clearly not as pissed about the rooming arrangement. 

"No," the younger simply snaps, ignoring Jeno as he carries box after box into what is now, their dorm room.


	17. Chapter 17

"This is absurd," Jaemin cries, all but ungracefully falling into Jeno when he finally sees him for that dinner plan. "I wanna cry."

Jeno rolls his eyes at how overdramatic Jaemin was being, but he still pats his back in comfort nonetheless.

"It's not that bad," Jeno murmurs, pulling Jaemin off of him and lacing their hands together. "You'll live."

Jaemin doesn't seem to like what Jeno said.

"Of course you think it's fine!" The younger defends. "Mark isn't your roommate!"

After rolling his eyes again, Jeno continues walking with a sulky and glaring Jaemin following him.

"Yeah, but Donghyuck is."

This makes Jaemin freeze, going completely still to the point where Jeno has to stop walking to see that Jaemin is just standing behind him.

"And you didn't tell me!" The younger finally yells, stomping back in tow with Jeno. "This is ridiculous."

"Sorry, mister 'Nono you won't believe that Mark is my roommate'," Jeno scoffs. "You didn't really give me time to breathe while you were ranting, let alone let me share who my roommate is!"

Jaemin glares at Jeno before his resolves breaks, and he's back to pouting.

"This sucks."

Jeno rolls his eyes.

"No it doesn't," he says, grabbing the younger's hand again. "It's a sign."

Jaemin scowls.

"Bullshit."

"Okay, you're awfully negative right now," Jeno scoffs, swinging their intertwined hands between them.

"Sorry, I just think that Donghyuck made it pretty clear that I'm not supposed to be anywhere near his Mark hyung," Jaemin says sarcastically, an airy laugh leaving his pink lips.

"Mark isn't his," Jeno protests. "We're all soulmates."

Jaemin sighs, and Jeno can see the bitter smile on his features.

"That's where you're wrong Nono," the younger starts. "You're my only soulmate."

It dawns on Jeno that Jaemin is right.

It takes him a moment to clear it up in his head, because this entire soulmate ordeal really is a mess.

Donghyuck's soulmate is Jeno, and Mark. He has two.

Jaemin's soulmate is Jeno. He only has one.

Mark has all three of their names, he's destined for all three of them, if the frequencies of their names on each other is anything to go by.

Meanwhile Jeno himself, well, the only tattoo he has is Donghyuck's.

The only thing that can be confirmed is that Donghyuck and Jeno are fated, and that Donghyuck and Mark are fated.

But Jeno wants Jaemin in that too.

He wants all four of them to get along, and he wants all of them to realize their feelings for each other.

Because it's weird, and it's probably some odd soulmate fate thing, but Jeno can feel the bond between all four of them. Even if currently the atmosphere and tension around them is always thick and uncomfortable, a lot of unspoken words mingling in the air between the four of them, Jeno knows there's a bond.

So Jeno does the only thing he can think of in this moment, and squeezes Jaemin's hand comfortingly as the latter looks anywhere but his boyfriend.

"Get along with Mark," he says, voice soft, almost like a request.

It was a request, a request for Jaemin to realize that the four of them are more than just a mess of tattoos and lost hearts.

Smiling hesitantly, because sharing Jeno was still something new to him, Jaemin weakly squeezes the elder's hand back.

"Try and get Donghyuck to get along with you."

 

"Buffoonery," Donghyuck spits, glaring at Jaemin's side of the dorm room before flopping onto Mark's bed. "Absolute buffoonery."

Mark gulps, suddenly very nervous that Donghyuck was in his room.

Mark hadn't gotten over the fact that Jaemin suddenly looked ten times prettier than the last time he saw the latter. His hair was now some strawberry pink blonde colour instead of the light brown shade he had been previously sporting. Also, his face suddenly appealed to Mark way more than it did the first time.

He doesn't know what it is, but he knows that Donghyuck is gonna beat his ass if he ever found out that he's been fawning over Na Jaemin.

"No it's not," Mark says, trying to keep the middle ground. That's what he's known for anyways, always finding and keeping an equilibrium. "It's a chance."

Now, Donghyuck thinks Mark is a lot of things. But he never thought Mark was stupid.

"What do you mean?" Donghyuck asks with a groan. "We don't need them in our lives!"

It's out of character for Mark to get mad, and it's also out of character for Mark to get mad at Donghyuck.

But Donghyuck is already open minded about Jeno, so Mark would really appreciate it if he could also be open minded about Jaemin.

"Hyuck," Mark starts in a mumble, turning to face Donghyuck who's laying on his bed. "I want them both in my life."

He didn't know how the younger would react to his words, but he most certainly didn't expect to hear what came out of the other's mouth.

"Don't let your tattoos fool you, sometimes it isn't meant to be."

And sometimes it truly isn't meant to be.

And Mark doesn't know what to call it, but he feels a connection.

If it wasn't meant to be, Mark's chest wouldn't ache at the thought of switching dorms so that he wouldn't be with Jaemin.

"I think I like him," Mark whispers, keeping his eyes trained on Donghyuck, watching as he goes from being livid to crumbling. "I'm sorry."


	18. Chapter 18

"I'll be waiting on the bleachers, alright?" Jaemin says, smoothing our Jeno's t-shirt which didn't need smoothing out over the shoulders. He hums before looking back at the elder. "Good luck, I love you."

Jeno smiles his pretty smile for Jaemin, before waving him off.

Today, the two of them were out for soccer team tryouts. Well, Jeno was the one trying out. Jaemin was there for moral support and stuff.

Junior varsity team of course, but making it on the team is still a long shot.

It's whatever though, Jeno adores soccer and it would be a lie to say that part of the reason why Seoul university took Jeno in wasn't because of his impressive soccer skills.

Classes haven't started yet but they're already looking for a new lineup to replace players who've graduated, since underclassmen have taken their spots, leaving some empty.

Shaking some nervous jitters off, Jeno clears his throat and tries to find someone he could probably acquaint and do some warm up drills with, as many people around him are doing.

Suddenly, his eyes catch a mop of light brown hair, and his feet seem to have a mind of their own when he finds himself walking towards the boy.

"Mark...?" Jeno asks hesitantly, not knowing how the elder would take to his presence.

Surprisingly though, Mark's head shoots up to look at Jeno, and the latter sees what he thinks is panic shoot through his eyes. But it's so brief that Jeno doesn't even know if he was imagining it or not.

Plus, he doesn't need to know that Mark was panicking because he was staring at the boyfriend of the boy who he likes.

"Hey Jeno," Mark settles on greeting, eyes warm and smile bright. "Trying out?" He asks casually.

One thing Jeno really likes about Mark is how easy going and open minded he is.

Not to say that Jaemin and Donghyuck weren't that, it's just that Jaemin and Donghyuck were stubborn assholes who had to be bribed before they would cooperate.

But Mark was easy, just like Jeno himself. And the latter liked that fact.

"Yeah," the younger nods, affirming Mark's question. "You?"

He gets a nod as a response and a soccer ball thrown at him.

"Warm up with me?" Mark asks, and of course, Jeno nods.

Meanwhile, Jaemin feels like puking from where he's sitting on the bleachers.

He isn't the only one there, but the people who are sitting on the bleachers are generously spaced apart.

Which is why the stink eye Donghyuck shoots him is painfully apparent.

"Donghyuck stop looking at me like that," Jaemin sighs, keeping his eyes on the field but directing his words to Donghyuck.

"That's Donghyuck hyung to you," he scoffs, also keeping his eyes on the field.

"You're only a month older than I am," Jaemin frowns.

"A month and eight days older than you," the elder corrects.

Jaemin wants to hit him for being so snarky, but decides against it for better judgement. And because Jeno wouldn't really be please when he finds out.

Jaemin decides to keep quiet after that, but can't help but open his mouth to ask a question when he suddenly feels Donghyuck's presence next to him.

"What?" He asks, quite informally if you were to ask Donghyuck.

"I just can't see well from there," the elder says, not sparing Jaemin a second glance.

He scoffs.

Jaemin turns a head towards Donghyuck, tilting it slightly in confusion.

"What?" He asks.

The elder doesn't say anything except cock his head towards the field. When Jaemin follows his line of vision, he sees Mark and Jeno laughing happily together on the field, and it looks like they're warming up by passing a ball between them.

"Didn't know Jeno plays soccer," Donghyuck mutters, squinting to get a better look at the smiling males.

"I didn't know Mark did," Jaemin says.

Donghyuck scoffs again at that.

"Don't know why you would know that anyways."

Jaemin frowns again.

It was pretty obvious that Donghyuck didn't take a liking to him, that he didn't really take a liking to anyone but Mark. But the elder didn't have to be... So rude about it.

Jaemin could've easily commented on how Donghyuck shouldn't have known that Jeno plays soccer in the first place as well, but he held his tongue.

Minutes continue in silence, with both Donghyuck and Jaemin watching their significant others on the field as they wait and stand in line together.

Tryouts have already started and Mark and Jeno were just waiting for their turn together, having what seemed to be an easy going conversation.

It didn't bother Jaemin that Mark and Jeno were getting along. After all, that's what Jeno wanted anyways. For all of them to get along.

"You know," Donghyuck starts, even if he claims he doesn't like Jaemin, breaking the silence. "Mark hyung likes you."

This surely catches Jaemin's attention, who went from staring out at the field to staring at Donghyuck with eyes as wide as saucers.

"I-I'm sorry— What?" The younger chokes out, looking at Donghyuck incredulously.

Turning his head to look at Jaemin, Donghyuck keeps his face void of any emotions as he continues to speak.

"Mark hyung likes you. Happy yet?" He asks, and his tone holds a slight bite to it, something Jaemin doesn't appreciate.

"It's not like I made him like me," the younger sasses back, voice gaining a bit of an edge to it. "That was his own decision."

Donghyuck growls lowly, but Jaemin still heard it.

"What did you even do? It's been one day since you've been roommates, did you seduce him?" Donghyuck asks, eyes glowing with what appears to be anger. But Jaemin knows that there's also an underlying tone of jealousy.

"Shut up," Jaemin snaps, not caring that he's speaking disrespectfully to his elder. "I didn't do anything. It's not my fault."

"But it is!" Donghyuck exclaims, thankfully not loud enough to draw attention, but still loud enough to have Jaemin on his toes. "Everything in this mess is your and Jeno's fault!"

"Don't bring Jeno into this, he didn't do anything!"

If Jaemin was being honest, Donghyuck looked like he could cry at any moment.

It didn't make Jaemin feel good, knowing that fact. It also didn't make him feel satisfied or anything like that. Jaemin just felt worried, for an unknown reason.

"Yes he did! He was the first tattoo! His name came on Mark hyung first! It's his fault!"

Jaemin opens his mouth to protest against Donghyuck's words once again, but the elder says something before he could.

"I wish you two were never involved."

Now, it's not like those words hurt Jaemin... But those words hurt Jaemin.

Jaemin understands that Donghyuck doesn't particularly like him and Jeno, and that's fine because he understands why. Donghyuck doesn't like Jaemin and Jeno because they got in the way of his picture perfect relationship with Mark. And Jaemin feels the same way about the other two. They got in the way of his and Jeno's picture perfect relationship.

But Donghyuck... Donghyuck is too mean about it.

And maybe Jaemin was just being a big brat and child, but Donghyuck hurt his feelings and he didn't like it.

So he chooses to ignore the elder for the rest of the tryouts, resulting to reading the book he brought with him.

Donghyuck doesn't mind, keeping his stone cold eyes fixed on the field.

From where Mark and Jeno are waiting for their turn, they both talk about how worried they are when they can literally feel the tension radiating off of Donghyuck ad Jaemin.

Whether it be a soulmate thing or not, both Mark and Jeno were worried.


	19. Chapter 19

When tryouts for the junior varsity soccer team are over, Jeno forgets all about his worries, because he's sprinting up the stairs of the bleachers, towards where Jaemin is sitting with his book, completely ignoring Donghyuck.

With the excitement coursing through his viens and the adrenaline in his blood, Jeno also ignores Donghyuck, going straight to Jaemin and ripping the younger out of his book.

The first thought Jaemin has when Jeno touches his arm is that Jeno was sticky which meant he sweat too much, and the younger would appreciate it if Jeno didn't bring him into a bone crushing hug when he was sweating buckets.

"I made it," he whispers into Jaemin's ear, instantly putting a smile on the latter's face. "Congratulate me." Jaemin can hear the teasing smile in his voice.

"I'm proud," the younger whispers back, finally bringing his arms up and around Jeno. From where Jaemin face is in Jeno's neck, the elder can feel Jaemin's smile.

When Jeno looks up, he sees Donghyuck staring at him, from where his head is perched on Mark's shoulder.

"Congrats," Donghyuck mouths to him, and Jeno's eyes crinkle more, if that's even possible.

"Him too," Jeno mouths, cocking his head slightly in Mark's direction.

Mark made it on the team as well.

When Jeno pulls away from Jaemin, he can see Mark do the same out of his peripheral.

"Good job," Mark says softly to Jeno, turning around to face the other couple. The atmosphere instantly gets tenser with everyone acknowledging each other. "You're good."

"Thanks," Jeno says, almost breathlessly for some reason. "You're good too."

Silence ensues, but Mark is quick to diminish it.

"I heard there's a drama club," he says, and Jeno can see Donghyuck's eyes sparkle at the sound of it. "Into that?" He continues, directing his question at Jaemin.

Tentatively, Jaemin nods.

Mark grins.

"Join with Hyuck, he loves theatre."

Jaemin tries to smile at that, out of common courtesy, but he's pretty sure it came out as more of a grimace.

"Jaemin does too," Jeno mumbles.

"Jaemin can speak for himself," Donghyuck scoffs, grabbing Mark's hand and dragging him away.

"T-Talk to me if you wanna know more about the drama club!" Mark stutters over his shoulder, before Donghyuck picks up his pace and force, dragging the two of them away.

"I don't think Donghyuck likes me," Jaemin sighs, leaning his head on Jeno's shoulder. "But that's fine, I don't like Donghyuck either."

Jeno just hums.

——

When Jeno walks into his dorm room, Donghyuck is already there, reading a book.

But when the door opened, he shoots a head up and glares at the elder, who just tries to ignore the younger's gaze and take a shower.

"I don't want Jaemin joining the drama club," Donghyuck suddenly says out of the blue.

Jeno shoots him a look.

"Jaemin can do whatever he wants," Jeno replies, fishing out a pair of basketball shorts from his drawer.

"Yeah, but I'd prefer if he didn't. Put in a word or two about that."

Jeno sighs, turning to face Donghyuck, and for once in his life, forcing a smile into his face.

"Jaemin loves theatre. I wouldn't want anything getting in the way of that," he says simply, and Donghyuck opens his mouth to speak, but Jeno continues before he can. "And you love theatre too. So don't let anything get in the way of that either."

Donghyuck keeps on opening and closing his mouth like a fish, not finding the right words to say.

He didn't expect Jeno to say something like that.

So he just settles on glaring at the elder.

——

"Jaemin," Mark calls, catching the attention of the former boy.

"Hm?" The younger hums, turning around to face Mark. "What's up?"

For sure, Jaemin hadn't really liked the idea of rooming with Mark at first, but since it's already been a week since they've moved in together, Jaemin has learned that Mark is just a quiet and respectful boy, and that disliking him and treating him poorly simply because he had three tattoos on his body was kind of shitty.

Mark closes the door of their dorm before walking over to Jaemin, who's eyes have now widened with question towards why Mark was making his way to him.

His eyes widen even more, if possible, when Mark holds him by the shoulders.

"Jaemin," he starts, taking a deep breathe in and then out, closing his eyes and then opening them again. "I like you. Would you like to go on a date with me?"


	20. Chapter 20

When Jaemin agreed to go on a date with Mark, he didn't think Mark would take it seriously.

He thought that maybe Mark was just trying to figure out if he was really tripping about liking Jaemin, and had to experience a date with him before coming to a conclusion.

Also, Jaemin was just really nervous about the whole thing.

Because for one; he doesn't know if Mark told Donghyuck about this date. If he did, well then it's surprising that Donghyuck hadn't ripped his head off by now. But judging by how that didn't happen, Jaemin assumes that Donghyuck doesn't know about his boyfriend taking Jaemin on a date, which somehow makes everything more scary. 

And two; what if Mark asked Jaemin on this date just to shut down everything between the four of them once and for all? What if Mark was just going to take him somewhere nice and ease the news on him gently by saying that he's meant for Donghyuck and that Jaemin was meant for Jeno, and that things should stay that way.

Jaemin doesn't know why, he really, truly doesn't know why, but the thought of ending everything messy between the four of them made his chest clench in a weird way he wasn't used to.

There was also another reason, another small reason.

Jaemin was nervous about his first date with Mark because it reminded him of how he felt when he was about to go on his first date with Jeno.

And he didn't know how to interpret that information.

Should he be excited? Excited that someone else was making him feel this way, that he was apparently open to their relationship?

Or should he feel scared? Scared that someone else could make him feel the way Jeno makes him feel.

Jaemin's more scared than excited, but he won't deny that it was that exact excitement which caused him to accept Mark's date offer.

To be completely honest, Jaemin didn't even think of any other factors before saying yes.

He didn't think about Mark having a boyfriend, about him having a boyfriend, or about how much Donghyuck would get hurt, and how much Jeno would get hurt.

Truth be told, Jaemin didn't think at all before accepting Mark's date offering.

But he'd be lying if he said that guilt wasn't eating himself alive.

He didn't know what to tell Jeno.

He asked Jaemin and Mark to get along, not go on dates. He didn't ask Jaemin to break his heart.

"I'm going to pick up some last minute school supplies, alright?" Jaemin tells Jeno one evening when they're walking back from dinner. He feels disgusting because lying to Jeno made his gut twist in all the wrong ways.

"Should I come with you?" Jeno offers, and Jaemin feels his heart ache. Instead, he gives the elder a tight lipped smile and shakes his head no.

"I'll be fine on my own," he assures, playing the the buttons on the elder's plaid shirt. "Love you," he mumbles.

Jaemin doesn't have to be looking at Jeno to know that the latter just flashed him with megawatt smile.

"Love you too!"

Jaemin doesn't think he deserves Jeno.

——

Donghyuck was scary when he was mad.

Which is why Mark's been walking on eggshells around the younger ever since asking Jaemin out on a date.

He'd have to come clean with Donghyuck, at one point. He just doesn't know when to.

No matter when, Donghyuck would be angry.

"I'm gonna play some soccer on the beach with a few dudes from the team," Mark informs Donghyuck, finding it awfully difficult to push the lie out of his mouth.

Donghyuck scrunches up his nose at the mention of the beach.

"Have fun," he wishes. "I'm gonna head to the library."

Mark hums, biting his lip before putting a hand on the nape of Donghyuck's neck and pulling him in. He places a little peck on the younger's lips before pulling away.

"Love you baby," Mark whispers, putting every ounce of sincerity into his words.

Donghyuck smiles up at him.

"Love you too."

——

"God, we're such horrible people," Jaemin says when Mark walks into their dorm.

Immediately, Mark nods his head.

"Glad to know I'm not the only one who feels that way." The elder says, pushing a hand through his hair. "Said I was gonna play soccer at the beach. What was your excuse?"

"School supply shopping," Jaemin frowns, picking at his nails. "Mark?" He asks, voice suddenly very quiet.

"Yeah?"

"Do you... Actually wanna date me?" Jaemin asks in a mumble, trying to keep his eyes trained onto the floor and not see Mark's reaction. "Because I-I know you really love Donghyuck... A-And if you're just experimenting t-then I don't wanna go on a date with you." Jaemin says, still looking at the floor.

If Jaemin was looking up, he'd see how Mark's eyes soften.

"Why? Do you like me?" He asks, taking a tentative step closer. He doesn't know where he got the confidence to ask that question, seeing as he was quite nervous about the whole situation too. "Because you really love Jeno."

Jaemin nods slowly, biting his lip when he feels his eyelids sting.

He's really dumb, agreeing to all of this and then getting upset and confused about it later. Jaemin wants to kick himself for being so confused, for not being able to handle the situation better.

"I like you..." Jaemin settles on saying, and he knows that he's being genuine. If he didn't like Mark, then he would've been way more upset about the rooming arrangement, and would've never said yes to going on a date with him. "But I'm n-not supposed to, am I?" He asks, voice cracking as he feels a lump grow in his throat.

Mark thought Jaemin looked pretty all the time.

And it was kind of unfair how he also looked pretty while crying right now, in front of him.

But even if Jaemin still looked stunning with tears running down his cheeks and shoulders lightly shaking, Mark never wants to see Jaemin cry.

"You're my soulmate," Mark assures, stepping closer to the younger until he could bring Jaemin into a hug. He was hesitant at first, but when he feels Jaemin lean into him, all hesitance is thrown out the window.

"But you're not mine," Jaemin cries, voice coming out muffled from where he's hiding in Mark's neck. "You're not my soulmate and I'm not Jeno's soulmate."

Mark doesn't say anything, he only pats Jaemin's back.

He has no idea how the younger must be feeling right now. He doesn't know the feeling, since he got the tattoo of the boy he loves, and the boy he loves got his tattoo.

But Jeno doesn't have Jaemin's name.

"I'm gonna lose him," Jaemin says in a whisper once he calms down. He doesn't bother moving from his position through, he finds it rather comfortable in Mark's arms. "I'm gonna l-lose him and then I'm gonna lose you."

"Hey," Mark instantly says, voice sounding so much softer than Jaemin has ever heard it. "I'm not going anywhere. I don't know you that well Jaemin, but I like you a lot. You're kind and sweet and if I like you this much already and can't imagine leaving you, Jeno isn't going anywhere, alright?"

Mark doesn't know if his words are comforting to Jaemin, seeing as he doesn't even have much to backup the fact that he likes Jaemin.

He's not irresponsible and he's not irrational, because he does like Jaemin, and Jaemin is everything which Mark said he was. But he should get to know Jaemin more before telling him words like that.

"Will you lose Donghyuck?" Jaemin asks, not caring how he was butting into business that wasn't his. Well, it was partially his, but not entirely.

"I wanna say no," Mark sighs with small smile on his face. "But Donghyuck is unpredictable," he chuckles sadly.

Jaemin tightens his arms around Mark before closing his eyes again and enjoying the warmth radiating off of the elder.

For now, they'll both forget about everything around them.

For now, they'll ignore the guilt eating at their insides.

For now, they'll only focus on each other.

And little did they know, Donghyuck and Jeno were doing the same.


	21. Chapter 21

Donghyuck didn't go to the library. He went straight back to his dorm, quite violently throwing the door open.

He was mad.

Really, really mad.

And maybe he was also a tad sad, but his anger was blinding him at the moment.

"You're gonna break the door," Jeno says, sounding surprised because of how much anger Donghyuck had possessed in this moment. "And I'm too broke to pay for repairs."

"You," Donghyuck starts, pointing a finger at Jeno. "You're gullible, aren't you?"

Raising his eyebrows in surprise, because Donghyuck doesn't speak to him, let alone speak to him like that.

"Why?"

Donghyuck scoffs, something akin to a smirk coming onto his features.

"Where's Jaemin?" He settles on asking.

Jeno doesn't know why Jaemin's location would matter to Donghyuck, but he answers nonetheless.

"He said he had to go buy some school supplies," Jeno shrugs. "Why?"

"You believe him?" The younger asks, cocking a head to the side.

Slowly, Jeno nods. Why wouldn't he believe Jaemin? Why shouldn't he believe Jaemin.

"Jaemin doesn't lie, Jaemin hates liars," Jeno points out matter of factly, not knowing how much he was humouring Donghyuck.

Because Jaemin did lie, and at the moment, was the embodiment of a hypocrite.

"Well, Jeno hyung," Donghyuck starts, startling Jeno by, one, sitting next to him on the bed, and two, calling him hyung. Donghyuck has never done that, and Jeno didn't know how to feel about it. "Jaemin is lying to you."

It's how blunt Donghyuck is which catches Jeno off guard at first, instead of the statement which left the younger's mouth.

Jeno frowns.

"He wouldn't." It's not a protest, and it's not Jeno standing up for Jaemin. It's more of Jeno trying to convince himself that Jaemin wouldn't lie, especially to him.

"I didn't think Mark hyung would lie to me, but there's a first time for everything."

Jeno ignores that sentence, his mind is still struggling to wrap around the fact that Jaemin had lied to him.

If he wasn't out buying school supplies, then what was he doing? What couldn't he tell Jeno?

Before he knew it, Jeno was getting mad. His temper wasn't something which was a problem, but something seemed to trigger it when he heard Jaemin was lying to him.

Perhaps this was how the younger felt when Jeno lied to him.

"Whoa there," Donghyuck chuckles, but there's no humour in it. He eyes Jeno's slight glare and hard expression for a few seconds before continuing. "No need to get mad at him." He says simply, truly meaning what he said.

For starters, Donghyuck wasn't even mad at Jaemin. He was mad at what Jaemin did, but he didn't blame the younger in the slightest. Because Jaemin is acting upon his feelings, and Donghyuck knows that once you're intrigued and infatuated, there isn't really much running through your mind in the logical sense.

Plus, Donghyuck can't be mad at Jaemin for liking his boyfriend when Donghyuck likes Jaemin's boyfriend.

So no, he isn't mad at Jaemin.

And Jeno shouldn't be either.

"What do you mean?" Jeno asks, voice very monotone.

"He's on a date with Mark."

Suddenly, the glare is wiped off of Jeno's face and his expression goes from hard to soft.

Donghyuck must feel hurt too, Jeno thinks.

If Mark was out on a date with someone who wasn't Donghyuck, Jeno was sure the latter would be angry and upset too.

So he doesn't know why Donghyuck was handling it so well.

For some reason, it was quite eerie.

"And you're okay with that?" The elder asks, genuinely curious because the Donghyuck that he knows, (granted, the Donghyuck he knows is a Donghyuck he doesn't know too well) would've been flipping his shit and searching for Jaemin to castrate him right about now.

Donghyuck nods his head, much to Jeno's surprise.

"Jaemin is Mark's soulmate. It was bound to happen at some point, Mark hyung falling for him," he says, and Jeno is just so shocked, because there is not one ounce of bitterness in his voice. "And I don't really care. I'm open to... Multiple partners," Donghyuck shrugs.

Jeno doesn't think much about what Donghyuck said about multiple partners, because he was okay with that too.

"You're okay with Jaemin?" That was what he was thinking about, since he knows about how much Donghyuck had loathed Jaemin to begin with.

Unsurprisingly, Donghyuck shakes his head.

"I don't know," the younger replies. "Maybe someday."

The next few seconds go on in silence, Jeno forgetting about his anger and trying to dismiss the fact that Jaemin hadn't told him what he was doing. The younger must've been scared of Jeno's reaction, and Jeno deems it unfair if he gets angry and blows up because he's done the exact same thing before because he was afraid of Jaemin's reaction.

But then, Donghyuck speaks.

"Plus, I can't be mad at Mark hyung for asking someone else on a date when I like someone else too."

Jeno eyes almost bulge out of his eye sockets at what Donghyuck says.

The younger smirks without looking at Jeno, but he can feel the elder's gaze on him. 

"You're hot." Donghyuck says, and he doesn't even have to look at Jeno to know that the elder is blushing. "So I don't have the right to be mad at Mark. If I'm being honest right now, I wanna go on a date with you."

Donghyuck was so blunt and so straightforward that sometimes Jeno couldn't keep up. Now being a good example.

"M-Me?" Jeno stutters, pointing a finger to himself when Donghyuck finally looks at him. "You like me?"

Donghyuck remains calm, nodding his head.

Although the fear of rejection is burning inside him, he pushes it deep down and tries to focus on how this could positively.

"B-But I'm dating Jaemin—"

Donghyuck cuts the elder off with a snort.

"Haven't you been paying attention to this whole conversation? Your boyfriend is on a date with my boyfriend. We're all liars and cheaters Jeno, there's no reason for you to play good cop. I've seen the way you look at Mark hyung like he's the best thing that's ever happened to you anyways, cut the bullshit. Just admit that you've fallen for someone who isn't Na Jaemin."

Jeno blushes when Donghyuck mentions how he looks at Mark, and he's amazed at how on point Donghyuck is with the description.

"You wanna go on a date with me?" Jeno mumbles, eyeing the younger up and down when the revives a nod as a response.

A smile breaks its way onto his face. 

"Then I'll take you on a date."


End file.
